The Robotnik Complex
by Brian Bloomfield
Summary: Pollution destroys the earth and only one teenage soldier makes it into space. 2,522 years later he crashlands on Mobius, where he is assisted by the Freedom Fighters. Can Mobius's fate depend on one soldier with a final mission to finish? FINISHED!
1. The Begining

The Robotnic Complex  
Chapter 1  
  
Location: Earth Date: October 1, 2058  
In the year of 2079, the earth was destroyed by a Chemical Holocaust. Since  
space programs had been suspended, there was no way out. In 20 years, it  
seemed, the human race would be extinct. But one teenager, Brian Floyd, had  
found a way out. He was a technological wizzard. He built a spacecraft that  
would carry him and enough supplies for 2 years across the galaxy to find a   
world that could support human life. He would sleep during his journey in  
a bath of Liquid Nitrogen. He would never age a day. Brian was 14 when the   
spacecraft launched and he would sleep, and remain asleep, for the next   
2,522 years.  
  
Location: Mobius Orbit Date: March 4, 4580  
The Spacecraft was slowly entering orbit above this strange planet. The   
computer scaned the planet for signs of carbon-based life. The sensor went   
off the scale. The computer begun to wake it's sleeping cargo. First, the  
Nitrogen drained away, soon to be replaced by freezing cold water. The water   
slowly warmed up as the heating pumps kicked in. Then, the nanobots went to  
work replacing, destroying, and repairing damaged cells. When they were done  
with their task, the tank was drained and the water replaced by a liquid gel  
that was hot to the touch. When he was covered in the goo, the computer sent  
a electrical shock through his body. His heart started, and he began to  
breath. He was alive, but sleeping. So he was not aware of the small monitor   
in the corner was flashing a error message. It read:  
ENGINE BRAKING ERROR-ORBITAL DECAY INEVITABLE   
  
Location: Knothole Village Date: March 4, 4580  
Sonic was sitting back at the bottom of a tree near the ring pond, playing  
a few notes on his guitar. He had just gotton back from a supply trip and  
was taking it easy for a while. He hated when he had to go to Robotropolis.  
He gazed up at the sky and saw a gleem of metal. "Hmm," he thought. "I better  
go ask Rotor to check it out. He hurried toward Knothole at top speed. When   
he got to Rotor's shop, Rotor was in the corner by the telescope controls.  
"Hey Rotor, I think there is something you should see. It's..." Sonic didn't  
finish his sentence. Rotor turned and looked filled with fear. "Do you mean  
the spacecraft entering orbit?" Sonic just stood there. "You mean...not from  
Robotnic?" Rotor started watching his display again. "We don't know that yet.  
Go get the others. We need to decide something important." Sonic knew right   
away what he was thinking. "Rotor, we don't even know if it's hostile." Rotor  
turned back and spoke. "I know. That's why we have to think about this. If we  
don't do this right, we might end up with someone worse than Robotnic. If   
that's the case, we should blow it out of the sky before it's too late."  
  
Location: Mobius Orbit Date: 4580  
Brian stepped from the shower. He was still kinda tired, but he knew he had   
a lot of work to do. And he didn't want to be covered in pink gel all night.  
He pulled a pair of boxers and a some pants on, and grabbed a button down   
shirt. He put the shirt on, but left it open. Ever since he could remember,  
he had played the casual cool. Then he thought of how stupid it was to keep  
all of it up. After all, he was the last of his race. "How quaint," he  
thought as he light up all the touchboards on the Nav console. "Even now   
I'm still a trendy fuck." He scaned the planet terrain and dected a village.  
He continued to chuckle over the irony of it all when a flashing light   
caught his eye. He looked toward the Engineering Touchboard.  
ENGINE IGNITION FAILURE-ORBITAL DECAY IN TWO MINUTES, 42 SECONDS. "You   
have got to be fucking kidding me!" Brian yelled as he leaped from his   
chair at the main touchboard and ran toward the supply compartment. He had   
Two minutes to grab some supplys and eject from the drive core. Then he had  
the problem surviving re-entry.  
  
Location: Knothole Village Date: 4580  
Ouickly each of the senior Freedom Fighters had arrived at Rotor's lab and  
had been brought up to speed. The were about to discuss what to do when the  
telescope computer interupted. WARNING- CHANGE IN VELOCITY DETECTED. Rotor  
went over to the panel and asked for a holographic display of the crafts   
projected flight path. His mouth, along with everyone elses in the room,   
dropped open. It would crash 2 1/2 Miles outside of Knothole.  
  
Location: Mobius Orbit Date: 4580  
Brian had gathered all the supplies he would need for two months.He checked  
the timer. Still enough time to do what he had planed. He sat   
back in front of the touchboard and entered the final command from the   
Bridge of the Blade Runner. He opened the comm channels and aimed it at   
the small village below. "Attention. This is the G.S. Blade Runner. My...  
  
Location: Knothole Village Date: 4580  
"...main ion engine has failed. I am attempting to ditch this spacecraft.  
Any available help would be a great help. I am estimating to land about   
2 1/2 to 3 miles south of your town. I may need medical assistance. I am  
ejecting now. Over and out." The freedom fighters starred at the image until  
it shimmered and disolved. Eventully Tails broke the silence. "He...he  
looked like a terran. Like...Robotnic..." None of them protested this fact.  
None of them broke the silence.  
  
Location: Mobius Orbit-Decaying Date: 4580  
Brian quickly tightened his harness around his torso. He armed the   
explosive bolts that held the drive core to the habital part of the ship.  
He looked around him. After 2500 years, he was never going to see this   
place again. With one last sigh, and a small prayer to lady luck, he pulled  
the detonator. He gave out a cry as the spacecraft jerked and then became   
still again. The windows were glowing red. His entry had started.   
  
  



	2. ReEntry

The Robotnic Complex  
Chapter 2  
  
Location: Planet Mobius Orbit- Re-Entry in Progress Date: March 4, 4580   
Brian looked at the TouchBoard in front of him. The hulls temp was 1,200'F   
and climbing. Out his window he saw the beautiful crecent shaped moon reef,  
near the southern shores of Mobius. Even though Brian was scared for his life,  
his curosity couldn't help but make observations. 'Only one continent, how odd.'  
Brian was thinking as the reef slipped out of sight. A large tremor surrounded  
the craft as the Blade Runner went through a large air pocket. Brian screamed,  
but suddenly went silent. Even though the windows now glowed a bright red, he   
still could see to the ground. And as he looked out of his window, he got his  
first look of Robotropolis.  
  
Location: Knothole Village Meeting Date: March 4, 4580  
Upon the ringing of the emergency bell, the entire village of knothole   
gathered in front of the bell tower. At the top stood the Senior Freedom   
Fighters: Miles "Tails" Prowler, Bunny Rabbot, Antoine "Ant" D'Coolette,  
Rotor, Sally Acorn, and the True blue hero, Sonic T. Hedgehog. Princess Sally  
was calling for order. "As some of you may have heard, there is a object headed  
this way from orbit. The occupant of the craft is believed to be a Terran. We  
can't change that. But we have to make a very important decision. If Robotnic gets  
to him first, there is a chance that great devistation will follow. We have always  
held in out believes that all Terrans should be killed on sight. But this is a  
Terran that is not from this planet. If we adopt him into our society, and teach  
him our ways, he could help us in this war." She stopped to think about what she  
was about to say. "As many of you know, my father made the mistake of trusting  
Robotnic and almost destroyed our planet. But this is different. At the time we  
were in a war with all of the Terrans and it is believed that Robotnic still harbored  
a responsability to his race. This is a man from another planet. But if we choose to   
shun this man in his time of our need, we will have to kill him. We must not let  
Robotnic get to him."  
  
Location: Planet Mobius Orbit- Re-Entry in Progress Date: March 4, 4580  
"Oh...My...God...!" Brian hissed between ragged breathes of air. Even  
at the peek of the industrial nightmare on earth, never had anywhere been this bad.  
Factories spewed out what seemed like tons of waste into the atmosphere. The  
rivers ran black with oil and other by-products of rapid industrialzation. The area of ocean  
right by the city was tainted with huge amounts of toxins and dead, dying animals.  
'It was wrong.' thought Brian. 'The computer was wrong.' Then Brian passed out.  
  
Location: Knothole Village Outskirts Date: March 4, 4580  
About 3/4 of the population of knothole voted to take the stranger in.  
The search party, consisting of Rotor, Sonic, Bunny, Ant, and Tails. Sally was  
left to organized the villagers and help Dr. Quack organize the Hospital. They  
had been treking South of the village for 20 Minutes and still had not found anything.  
"Say Sonic, what do ya thing of this?" Asked Tails who flew sightly overhead looking for  
wreakage. Sonic looked up to his friend and simply stated, "I don't like it.  
How do we know he isn't some phychopathic nut who, like Robotnic, likes to destroy  
planets, but unlike Robotnic, has the technology to do it?" Sonic sighed and continued  
forward until Tails Shouted. "There, right there! I see it!" They all looked up to see a thin billow  
of smoke rising from the forest floor up ahead and slightly to the right. They  
broke into a slow run until they reached the crash site. All of them, even Sonic,  
gasped at what they saw. Slumped in the middle of a twisted ball of Titanium, was  
Brian, and his left arm was missing.   
  
Location: Knothole Village Medical Lab Date: March 5, 4580  
The search party had dragged Brian back to Knothole. Here, The Doctor stopped  
his stumb from bleeding and sewed it up. He also fixed the other cuts and scrapes  
he recieved in the crash. Dr. Quack had finished not five minutes ago when Brian  
started to wake up. The freedom Fighters had gathered outside and now quickly  
piled into the room. Brian's eyes groggly opened. He snapped to attention and surveyed his surroundings.  
He was in a bed, in a clinic, with a arm missing, cuts and...ARM MISSIMG!!!  
He set up quick. "AHHH!" Brian yelled as he looked at the stump where his elbow used  
to be. Then he saw Sally, Sonic, and the others. "AHHHHH! What the hell?" Sally  
and the others were wearing translators. "Your in a clinic in a village called knothole. You lost  
your arm in a crash." Brian looked on the verge of panic. "Please, calm down, we won't  
hurt you." Brian loosened a little. "This is the village that recieved my message?"  
Sally smiled a bit a finally gaining a little trust. "Yes. We sent out a serch party after you landed."  
Brian looked embarresed. "Look..." Brian looked at her with a questioning look. "Sally" Brian shook his head.  
"Sally. I'm Brian Miller. I'm sorry to burden you like this." Sally gave him a looked that melted his heart.  
"It's no burden. We do have a few questions for you to answer though, if you don't mind."  
Brian just grinned. "Go ahead." Sonic stepped forward. "First of all," he asked Brian with a fake smile, but  
Brian couldn't tell the difference, "What are you and why are you here?"  
  
  
  



	3. The DoubleEdged Sword

The Robotnic Complex  
Chapter 3  
  
Location: Knothole Village Medical Lab Date: March 5, 4580  
  
"Like I said before, my name is Brian Floyd. In the year 2058, I left the planet Earth  
in my spaceship that I built for one purpose, to carry me and supplies to a habital  
planet where I could live out the rest of my life. When I was 10, it was predicted  
by Earth scientists that the entire planets ecosystem would collaspe by the year 2079. All of  
the Space programs had been cut in the year 2000, so the majority of Humans,  
my race, were doomed. I, however, refused to accept destiny. I was a orphan  
who lived my own life, so just sitting down and giving up was not in my blood."  
Brian paused to take a breath and survey the group. He had their complete attention.  
"I had unbelivible gifts when it came to Machinery and Technology, so I built  
the Blade Runner out of scrap Titanium, stolen Computers, Old Compressors, and  
a Defunct Hydrogen Reactor for a Ion Engine. It was completed on Setptember 17,2057  
and launched on October 1, 2058. I then slept in a bath of Liquid Nitrogen for..."  
Brian tried to remember the date the computer told him. "...2,522 years." He paused and  
was about to go on when he was interupted by Rotor. "Hold on a minute. You said  
that you went to sleep in the ye...-Earth year 2058 and woke up 2,522 years later?  
That corrosponds with our calander exactly." A look of surprise passed over Brian's  
face. "That's weird. I'll have to check that out later... as long ats the flight recorder survived!  
And the safe! Damn! Where are my clothes! I got to go!" They were all surprised by  
his sudden outburst. Sally stepped forward again. "Brian, may I ask what is the problem?"  
"I'm sorry, it's just...If I don't get back to my ship-what's left of my ship, I won't be able to  
get my flight data or my supplys! I have a system where if there not accessed for 96 hours,  
they auto-destruct. Please, I got to go!" Bunnie tossed him his blue cargo jeans  
and his bright red shirt. They all turned so he could dress in private. Sally still wanted  
to ask him some questions, so she started talking while he dressed. "Why would you have,  
or need something like that?" Brian looked up from his pants to make sure they  
were still turned, and answered. "Non-Interference. If I were to crash and die on  
a planet with a growing culture, the objects they found from my crash site could alter their   
future drastically. I didn't want that to happen." All the Freedom Fighters in the room  
were impressed and shocked that he seemed to have thought of everything. He seemed  
to not want to alter or destroy anything. He actully-for a terran-seemed nice.  
"Don't you WANT to change things and destroy planets. I thought that was what all  
terrans were like." Tails blurted out before anyone could stop him. Brian went stiff  
at this notion. He finished buttoning his pants and went toward the young fox.  
He gave Tails a dark look. "My planet AND my race was destroyed by people who destroyed  
life and didn't give it a second thought. Now the HUMAN race is extinct and I am  
the only survivor. I have learned from my peoples mistakes, what about you? You  
build factories that, to this very moment, pollute and destroy life on this planet.  
Have you learned? I certanly hope so." With that he turned and walked out of the hut.  
No one said anything for a few moments. Finally Sally spoke. "Wow..." She thought a few  
moments and turned to speak to Sonic. "You better go with him to make sure he dosn't   
get in trouble." At the moment she finished his sentance, Sonic was gone and a puff  
of white smoke was all that told that he was there.   
  
Location: Outside of Knothole Date: March 5, 4580  
Sonic speed up to Brian. Brian ignored him and kept walking. "Just what the   
hell is your problem anyhow? You come in here and start ordering us around like a dicta-"   
Sonic was suddenly pinned to the ground. Brian had done what countless others  
had failed at on his first try. He had pinned the hedgehog. Brian's eyes glowed with a   
hellfire that seemed to come from within. "Listen to me Sonic, I really   
appreatiate what you are doing for me, but if you ever even THINK of calling   
me a Dictator again, I will kill you. There are certain parts of my story that you havn't heard yet,   
once you hear...you will understand...what the hell?!" Brian jumped up from Sonic. He looked on in horror.  
'Oh god...I lost control. I need my WristCom!' Brian thought and offered a hand up to Sonic nimbly. Slowly, Sonic  
took his hand and stood up. Sonic thought about his eyes. "That," Sonic offered  
"Wasn't really you...was it?" Brian sighed and surpressed a laugh. "No it was not." Brian's   
smile turned downward. "I believe I should tell you about my...condition. And how I can use raw energy as  
a weapon." Brian set down on the ground and offered Sonic a seat. Sonic took one next to Brian. "We still have time."   
Said Brian. "Now... where to begin...?"  
  
Location: Robotropolis-Throne Room Date: March 5, 4580  
Dr. Robotnic sat at the main console in the center of the polluted majesty of the work,  
Robotropolis. He was looking at the orbital data that his computers have gathered from  
the last 24 hours. He, of coarse, seen the G.S. Blade Runner enter the Mobian  
atmosphere. And he knew that any sensible pilot would choose Knothole over the polluted robotic  
paradise. He knew that if he could find the landing site, he could find Knothole. Finally,  
after all these years of waiting, he would find the dreaded village. And with  
the technology from the crash site...he and the planet Mobius were on the verge of  
a paradigm shift. If he played this right, he would have a partner in crime, the location of  
knothole village, and, possiblie technology beyond his wildest dreams. There would  
be setbacks, but he could do it. He thought of all the hopeless citizens of this planet  
and their crys of despair when he tortured and robotizied them. He smiled.  
  
Location: Outside of Knothole Date: March 5, 4580  
"On Earth, my home planet, computers became a way of life. Everybody knew that whoever  
controled the internet, the data flow network, controled the world. To protect the internet, two factions  
were set up. My faction, United Hackers Force, was made up of Ex-Hackers that wanted to make  
a difference in the world. They wanted to make the world a better place for people. The  
other faction, the Prep Acadamy, did the same thing. But they had little actual skill  
to do the job right. They were slippery than hell though. In the real world, that is.  
The United Earth Confederacy had to choose one group to be the official internet Guardians.  
Naturally, we were chosen for our skill. The Preps got mad. Real mad. They hired  
a labratory to Bio-Engineer a cyborg that could connect to a computer system. It was all powerful  
on the internet. Nothing we had could stop it. So I went in to our computer archives  
and pulled out all the viruses that had nearly been imposisable to beat. I merged them and created   
monster. Then I downloaded it into my brain.  
"I went onto the internet and fought the creation-that's what we called the cyborg.  
Using the virus, I destroyed the creation in the internet form, but we never found  
the physical form. Anyway, the Prep Acadamy was forced to disband after paying 1.2  
billion dollars in damage to 8 individual companys. When we were sure that it was all  
over, the doctors tried to remove the viral progran from my brain, but found it   
impossisable. The program melded with my personality. So they left it. But gave me a   
tool called a WristCom. It surpresses the Viral program. But, in a emergency, I can use  
the WristCom to channel burst of energy in a pattern. The pattent is changed by what tones  
I tell the tool to play. So, to sum it up, I can use music as a weapon, and I have almost  
omnipotent powers. The problem is that as long as i'm not wearing the tool, the Virus can take  
over my personality for a short period of time." Brian sighed as he finished his  
tale. "Brian, if you would have known that you were going to be forced to live with this  
the rest of your life," Sonic asked. "Would you still have done it?" Brian looked up  
and answered. "Yes. I saved countless people that day. Living the rest of my life with   
a burden is a small price to pay to be able to say that. Don't you think?" Sonic gave Brian a real  
smile this time. "Yeah, and I think I am finally able to understand you a little better." Brian laughed.  
"Let's get to the crash, I don't want to be out after dark." Standing up, they proceeded to the  
crash site. 


	4. Machine Head

The Robotnic Complex  
Chapter 4  
  
Author's Note:  
I took out Antoine's accent because I suck at typing French. Bunnie's was easy  
because I am good at understanding southern accents. Now Boston accents,  
that is a entirly different matter...  
  
Location: Guardian Ship Blade Runner-Crash Site Date:March 5, 4580  
"...Wow..." was all Brian could say when he saw the wreckage. It was spread  
out over a strip of over 100 feet. The computer core layed at his feet. He got on his knees  
and tried to open it. The handle moved bit the cover did not open to expose the  
processing package. Sonic was watching over his shoulder. "We have to take this back to Knothole with us.  
It's not the recorder, but it's vital." Sonic moved away as Brian got up. "It is truely amazing  
I survived this." He turned to face Sonic. "Can you look for a bright red rectangular box. I need  
to find my safe, and it's harder to find." Sonic shook his head yes. "No prob." He started searching.  
Brian surveyed the wreckage. He spotted something square and black 25 feet off.  
He started walking toward it. He was 10 feet away from it when he knew it was his safe.  
He smiled and bent over to examine it. Minor damage, just like the core. And, like the core,  
he was going to have to cut the cover off, at Knothole. "Hey, Brian, I think I found it!" Sonic was   
waving at him to come over to check it out. He smiled as he looked at what Sonic was pointing at.  
"That's it. Let's get back to Knothole." Sonic and Brian put the Flight Recorder and the Computer Core  
on top of the safe and started back to Knothole. "Sonic, there is a question I wanted to ask you. What happened  
to the city that you abandoned it to automation and live in a village?" Sonic stopped and looked at his new companion.  
"That's not what happened. The city your refering to is Robotropolis. It was once called  
Mobotropolis, until a Terran-also called Overlander-took it over with a army of Robots. He used a   
machine my Uncle Chuck invented-you have to meet him later- called a Roboticizer, to change almost the entire city's  
population, into mindless slaves. Only about 100 of us escaped. We moved into the village, and have been  
trying to fight the Terran-Robotnic-ever since. We have had minimal success, but we  
have done some damage."  
They started walking again. Sonic was quiet because he could tell that Brian was thinking  
about something important. 'With my gift, I could be a big help in there battle. But what about non-interference?'  
He finally decided that he needed to sleep on it. It was dark when they arrived at Knothole 25 minutes later.  
  
Location: Knothole Date: March 5-6, 4580  
They went directly to Rotor's lab. "Hi Rotor" Brian and Sonic said. They brought the safe and things inside  
and sat the Computer Core on the laser cutter. Rotor walked up to them. "What's this, the flight  
recorder?" he asked them after looking it over. Brian looked up. "No, actually it's the Computer."  
Rotor's eye's went wide. "This tiny thing ran a spaceship for over2 1/2 milinia?"  
Brian smiled. "I built it myself. A bit shoddy, some may say, but she's done me proud."   
Rotor looked at the dents and scraches. "Ya think it still works?" Brian reached over to the control and grabbed it.  
"Only one way to find out." Using the control, he carfully guided the laser around the access  
panel. He reached the last corner and shut the torch off. "Here goes." Brian lifted off the cover  
and put it aside. Rotor was gaping inside. "My god. How...We have got to call Uncle Chuck." Brian looked at him.  
"Why, is something wrong?" Rotor looked up. "You, are a genius. Do you realize  
how long it would have taken us to build this?" Brian smiled. "No idea. A couple days?"  
"Years!" Rotor yelled. "I'll be right back. Gotta find Chuck. Hee-Hee." Brian lifted a eyebrow.  
"A bit giddy isn't he?" Sonic just smiled. "When it comes to technology, yep. Anything else, nope."  
"Chuck!" Rotor yelled into the Knothole Cafeteria. Tails, Sally, Ant, Bunnie, and Uncle Chuck were   
there. Antoine and Bunnie were sitting rather close. "What is it Rotor." Uncle Chuck asked him. "Sonic and Brian   
just got back. You have got to see this technology! This computer is the size of a briefcase and ran a entire spaceship.  
Uncle Chuck and Tails stood up and hurried towards the door. "What is it with them and technology?" Sally thought  
out loud. "Ah don't know, sugah. But what ah DO know is that they're gonna have a all-night  
chop section. Ahm gonna go to bed. Night Sally-girl. Night Antoine." Bunnie walked out of the cafeteria  
and down the road toward her hut. After a few moments. Sally started to talk to Antoine. "Antoine,   
I don't mean to be...invasive, but you like Bunnie, don't you." Antoine started to blush. "Am I really that easy to read?"  
Sally smiled. "No, actually your not. It took me weeks of watching you to come to that conclusion.  
So you do like her?" Antoine blushed again. "...yeah..." Sally's smile grew wider. With a sing-song voice she taunted him.  
"I think she likes you..." Antoine turned bright red. "I don't think so. Why would anyone look at me like that? Goodnight  
Sally." Antoine walked out before she could stop him. 'Why would anyone look at you like that Antoine? Because they like  
you...' Bunnie and Sally had a conversation a few days earlier. When guys came up, Sally said, hands down,  
Sonic. When Sally had asked Bunnie, she had blushed bright red and told Sally  
that if she told anyone she would kill her. Sally agreed and Bunnie had told her Antoine.  
Sally thought back to their conversation. "Why don't you tell him?" Bunnie looked up from her lap and met Sally's  
gaze. "Because ahm not sure he feels the same way." Sally stood up and pushed Bunnie out the door.  
"Go. Now. Tell him." Bunnie stopped in her tracks. "Alright Alright Sally-girl. Later."  
Obviously Bunnie had failed in her mission. Sally sighed. 'Oh well," She thought  
"There's always tomorrow." She stood up, shut off the lights, and walked home.  
"AHHHH! Jesus christ in a handbasket, do you people have to keep doing that!" Brian turned to Sonic  
"Please warn me next time." Brian turned back to the shocked people in the doorway. "I'm sorry. I am assuming  
you are Uncle Chuck?" Chuck just looked at Brian. "Um, yeah that's me. And don't worry about  
it, happens all the time. Is that the computer?" Chuck walked behind Brian and looked  
at the case on the table. It was 1 foot by 1 1/2, 4 inches thick, and held 18 blazing fast  
processors, 6 separate memory buffers, and a central control swiching processor. "How much memory?"  
Chuck asked, going into techie speak. "15 Terrabytes RAM, 500 Gigabytes ROM, but that's because  
the flight recorder saves everything but Navigation. That's in here. What exactly is so remarkable  
about this? I built this in my basement." Uncle Chuck looked up. "The best machine we have here  
has only 500 megabytes RAM...Why do you need so much." Brian laughed. "Better safe than sorry. Barebones,  
the automation system I put in could work on only 15 gigabytes, byt I had a RAM-intensive self-check  
running constantly." Uncle Chuck chuckled (AN: Sorry, couldn't resist) "You outdid yourself. Come on, hook  
it up. I can't wait to see it on it's feet." Brian looked to Tail's. "Would you assist me? Tail's grin  
was too big for his face. "Absolutely." Rotor yawned. "I," he stated. "Am going to make a pot  
of coffee. This will forever and a day." Rotor went to the back office. Sonic stood up. "This is way to  
tech for me. I'm going to bed. Night guys. Have a ball." Sonic turned and walked out of  
the lab. He was going to run, but then decided to enjoy the night. He walked along thinking of Robotnic.  
'Now that Brian is here, we can finally beat the fat bastard. If he'll help. But why wouldn't he?  
He sounds like a nice guy, and he says he has the ultimate weapon. But is he lying?'   
Sonic sighed. 'If he is lying, we'll find out tomorrow'  
Brian, Tails, and Uncle Chuck stayed awake till four in the AM. Rotor fell asleep  
at Three.Uncle Chuck went back to Robotropolis. They did systems diagnostics to check the condition   
of the boards, checked the conectors, and ran a manual check of all components. Tails and Brian got into a conversation.  
"By the way, I'm sorry that I blew up on you today." Tails looked up from the circuit diagram he was analizing.  
"Don't worry about it, people do that to me all the time." Brian stoped to take a drink of coffee.  
"Why?"  
"Because, even though I'm 15, people still think I'm a little kid. I pissed off Sally once by  
fixing the water collecter by myself. 'You could have broke it' she said. Look at me. I am handling   
circuits and chips that I know nothing about like a pro. Yet I am still a kid. Sometimes I really  
get fed up with it. I want to tell them all to stick it up their ass, but..."  
"You couldn't do that to someone you love."  
"They took me in when I had no one else. I at least owe them respect.  
"I agree, but don't you think that since your older, they owe you some respect back?"  
Tails thought about this for a minute. "Yeah, I guess your right. I should talk to them about it."  
"Do that. And by the way, your skill is there, but just a tad bit reckless. Anyone, even me,  
could break anything, even something as simple as a collecter."  
"Thanks, Brian. For everything. Goodnight."  
"Goodnight Tails."  
Tails gathered his tools and walked out into the cool night air. He headed toward his hut.  
He thought about what Brian said. He already liked Brian, no matter what the others said.  
He just met Tails and already treated him like any of the others. He was ok.  
Brian set inside, thinking. "Ya know sugah, that mah have not been a very good idea."  
Bunnie's voice jumped from behind him. "AHHHH! What is it with you people and scaring me?"  
Bunnie steped forward. "Ahm sorry sugah, it's just ah couldn't help but overheah what ya told tails."  
Brian slumper in his chair. "It's just that i'm 14, and I know what he's going through. On   
Earth, even though I beat the biggest threat we had known, until pollution, I got almost no respect.  
And here I am, the sole survivor of a lost race by 25 centuries." Bunnie however, was shocked by  
his age. "Your only 14 sugah? I was thinking that you were at least 19!"  
"Your not going to tell them, are you. I want to tell them, in my own time."  
Bunnie thought about this for a moment. "OK sugah, you can trust this girl with a secret."  
Brian looked relived. "Thanks Bunnie. May I ask you a question?"  
"Go ahead Brian."  
"Were you affected by the Roboticization process?" Bunnie stiffened at this question. Brian looked worried.  
"I'm sorry if that was too personal a question for you."  
"That's alright sugah, I'd just rather not talk about it. Goodnight Brian."  
"Goodnight Bunnie."  
Bunnie turned and walked toward her hut, leaving Brian to his thoughts.  
'What if she was roboticized? Could I do the same for my arm? Would it work even with no flesh?  
If I couldn't control it, would I become mindless too?'  
Brian decided to ask for the plans to the Roboticizer from Rotor or...Uncle Chuck! He designed it,  
so he should be the one to help brian! But what of the damage already done by this machine?  
Would they agree to let a person who so resembles a dictator on their planet to see one  
of their most best kept secrets? 'If so," Brian wondered, 'At what cost?'  



	5. Request Granted

The Robotnic Complex  
Chapter 5  
  
Author's Note: In this chapter, I will be intorducing some odd things that will  
play a major role in the story. Since I don't want to dissapoint you, my  
dear readers, I will much enjoy your feedback about the WatchCom and other  
aspects of the story. Please mail me at:  
acid_2000@hmcltd.net  
theacidmethod@hotmail.com  
Until then, enjoy. And pray for those in New York. Brian B.  
  
:: = WristCom Statement-A command to the WristCom  
  
Location: Knothole Date: March 6, 4580  
"Absolutly out of the question! Your insane!" Uncle Chuck shouted at  
Brian and Brian ducked to avoid being hit by multiple flying objects.   
Villagers had begun to gather aroung the lab to see what the commotion was  
all about. "Just listen to what i'm saying! I..."   
"I've heard what you said now it's my turn to get my two cents in!" Chuck  
hurdled a lamp at Brian. He didn't duck in time. It smacked him in the side   
of the head and knocked him out just as Sally, Sonic, and Rotor came inside.  
Rotor looked in horror at the mess his lab had become. "CHUCK!" He roared   
sending everyone quiet. "WHAT...THE HELL...DID YOU DO HERE!" Chuck looked at   
Rotor. "I'm sorry, I just was defending myself aganst..."   
"WHAT! WORDS?"  
"No, he wanted the diagram for the Roboticizer! We should have never had   
trusted him!"  
"Why did he want the diagrams?"  
"Because...I...I don't know..."  
"YOU DON'T KNOW? YOU DIDN'T ASK!?"  
Brian stood up, his eyes a bright, blood red. "Oooh, that tickles. Hey Chuck,  
think fast." Brian was about to hurled a large book at Chuck when his eyes   
returned to normal. Sonic approched him. "You good?" Brian looked from the   
book to Sonic. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm good." Brian set the book down and touched   
the side of his head, where a large bump was now forming. He winced. Sally   
came up to him. "Brian, why do you want the plan to a Roboticizer?"  
He looked at the croud at the door and then to her. "Could we talk in a place   
a little more private?" Sally made a waving gesture to the people at the door.  
They disbanded and walked away. Bunnie, Antoine, and Tails walked in. Tails  
shut the door. "Well, why?" Brian looked down to the ground and then back to  
her. "With your permition, Iwant to build a Roboticizer for one-time use."  
Sally crosed her arms. "On whom, may I ask?"  
"On myself" No one in the room moved. It took Sally a moment to regain her  
composure. "Why?"   
"My arm."  
"Anything that gets roboticized turns into a braindead slave. We still   
haven't figured out what went wrong."  
"I can. I just need the Diagram to do it. I'll redesign the entire system  
with fail-safes, whatever. I'll even design a deroboticizer. That way, even   
if I am braindead, you could still recover me. Please." Sally turned away from  
him and headed toward the others in the back.  
Sally:Did you guys here that?  
Chuck: I'm telling you, he's nuts. I designed the Roboticizer and I'm telling  
you the kind of control he's talking about is not posisible.  
Tails: Have you thought of what that computer could do to the design?  
Rotor: That's a good point. And the deroboticizer. We could use that on Uncle  
Chuck and Bunnie.  
Chuck: I would rather not get my hopes up.  
Bunnie: And I'd rather wait until the war is over.  
Sally: Sonic, Antoine, what do you think?  
Antoine: I say why not. If he messes it up, we would just have to kill him.  
Sonic: We havn't known him for long, but I am getting the impression that  
he trusts us. So I agree with Ant. His mistake, his death.  
Sally: So it's agreed?  
All: Yeah  
Sally walked over to Brian and told him that they all agreed to let him take  
a shot at it. Brian smiled. "Thank you for trusting me." Sally smiled.   
"Just remember, if you screw up, we will kill you." Brian smiled. "Deal, Now  
I need to cut open my safe." Tails came over. "I'll help you." Brian shrugged.  
"OK." They walked off toward the laser torch. "Sonic, is it just me or are they  
becoming good friends?" Sonic looked at them. "Yeah, your right Sal. And another   
thing. Is it me or does Brian seem younger that I thought he was on first impression?"  
"No I didn't notice it, but now that you point it out...yeah, he does look young.  
We should ask him his age." Sonic started over, but Sally grabbed his shoulder.  
"What?" he asked. "He's busy right now. Let him finish and then we can ask him."  
Sonic was about to protest but decided not to. "I'm gonna go to the ring ponds.  
Want to come with?" Sally smiled. "Sure. Let's go." They walked out of the lab.  
Rotor walked over to the laser just as they finished with it and lifted  
the cover off. "Ok, now we need to sort through this stuff and see what I   
brought. Brian stuck his hand in the safe and brought out the first item.  
"One Palm Computer with Blade Runner designs and Structral test data." Tails   
looked on in wonder as Brian set down the small hand-sized panel onto the table.  
"Are you telling me that is a computer?" Brian just looked and smiled. "You  
ain't seen nothing yet!" Brian reached into the safe and pulled out another item.  
"WatchCom personality comtrol and weapon release." Brian put the watch on and  
looked at Tails. "Want a demonstration?" Chuck came over from Cleaning. "What's that?"  
Brian grinned and pushed a button. A green aura of energy washed around him.  
"Check this out!" Brian said to them, as they looked on in wonder. He closed his eyes.  
::Brother's amaze, keep'em all in a daze, with that wild folk blaze, GOOD GRIEF::  
With that simple line of song, Brian was lifted off the ground. He floated about 2 feet  
above their heads. He opened his eyes. They were glowing a bright green.  
"So, what do you think?" All of their mouths were collectivly open. He was floating.  
How was he floating? Brian had picked a bad time to conduct his test, however.  
Just then, Knuckles walked in the lab.  



	6. Just a Bit Odd

Once again, the crative Brian Bloomfield has outwitted the dark and sinister   
Captain W. Block. And if you don't get the joke, I can't help you.   
  
Ok. since I'm a moron and forgot to do this at the beginning of this story,   
here is the legal stuff my lawyer tells me to forget so he can make money.   
Did I say that out loud? Nevermind. Anyhow, here we go!   
  
Without a BIG mistake in paperwork and a miricle, I will never own nor own   
the rights to Sonic the Hedgehog, Sally, or and of the characters in this   
story besides Brian. DIC, Archie Comics, and Sega own all execlusive rights   
to all charaters and locations in this story (one again, except Brian). This fic,   
and it's plot, however, belong to me, so if you want to use it, ASK ME PLEASE!   
Oh, and by the by, this little annoying person keeps asking me to write a   
fic based on the weekday version of Sonic that airs on Disney. You know who   
you are. SHUT UP! And also, by the way, a big thanks to Anthony Balt who   
gave me a GREAT idea about how to play the next few chapters. Thank you   
Anthony and all those people that keep reviewing my storys. And if you don't   
review (you know who you are), don't bother to read my work. I will not waste   
time writing this stuff if you just read it and leave. I don't care it you just   
type: COOL, YEAH, AWESOME, OK, or YOU SUCK. Just keep me informed! OK, I'm   
done. Onto the Fic. Oh, BTW, all music is copyrighted by their respective bands,   
singers, labels, and orchastra.   
  
Brian B.   
  
The Robotnic Complex   
Chapter 6   
  
Location: Ring Pond-Knothole Date: March 6, 4580   
  
Sonic and Sally were walking around the outer path that circles the   
ring pond. Neither of them said anything to the other, as they were both deep   
in thought. 'Should I tell her that I have feelings for her. If I do, what   
will she say.' Sally's thoughts were on the same track. 'Here I am, with the   
man I love, and I can't say anything! Ok, that's it, I'm gonna tell him!' Sally   
stopped suddenly and turned to Sonic.   
"Sonic, there's something I need to tell you." Sonic's heart doubled it's   
speed. "Yes?" Sally looked him in the eyes. "Sonic, I-" Before she,   
could continue, she was interupted by shouting from the village. Tails soared   
overhead and then landed on the ground. "You guys are not going to believe this.   
Knuckles just showed." Sonic and Sally looked at each other. Sonic grabbed   
Sally and raced toward the village.   
  
Location: Knothole Date March 6, 4580   
Knuckles just stared at Brian for a moment. 'OHMYGOD!!! A Terran...in   
Knothole! I have to stop him!' Knuckles launched himself at Brian. Brian just   
loked on in suprise as a very hard punch landed into his stomach. "Oooof!" Brian   
was thrown out of the air and smacked into the concrete, hard. The glow around   
him intenisifed. "Bitch, your dead." Chuck and Rotor were in shock. Brian just   
spoke in perfect Mobian. They took off the translators. ::I can feel this Narcolepsy   
slide...Into another nightmare!:: A energy ball formed in his right hand and   
jetted toward Knuckles at a high speed, but Knuckles moved to the side just in   
time to escape with nothing worse than slightly burnt hair on his back. He flipped   
around and slammed his fist as hard as he could into Brian's face. Brian was knocked   
back into the concrete wall of the lab. There was a sickining crack of bone as   
his head slammed into the wall, followed by the rest of his body. A moment later Sonic   
and Sally entered the room. "Oh no..." Sally mumbled as she looked at the body.   
"Is he still alive?" A voice came from behind her and Sonic. "Not for long."   
Knuckles stepped between them and headed toward Brian. From the other side of the   
lab a click was heard. "Knuckles, stop." Knuckles turned toward the voice. Sally   
was staring at him. "What? What do you mean?" Sally looked down and began to shake   
her head softly. She turned to Sonic. "Go and fetch Dr. Quack. Tell him to bring a   
strecher." She turned back to Knuckles. "He is on our side. Why did you attack him?"   
Knuckles mouth dropped open. Their side? What? "But...But...He's a Terran."   
Brian spoke up in a soft voice. "Human. Not Terran. Get it right." Sally look   
at him and gasped. She ran over to him. "Brian! How bad are you hurt?"Brian looked toward her.   
"I think my arm is broken. ::WristCom, run medical::" A few seconds lated the report came   
back. 3 fractured ribs, right lower arm compound fracture, right shoulder dislocation,   
broken nose, minor skull damage, tendon damage to right knee. Brian just gazed at the ceiling.   
"I always hated solid walls." Brian blinked a few more times then passed out.   
Dr. Quack entered the lab pushing a strecher in front of him. "Ok, what happened...   
wow!" Dr. Quack was looking at Brian's crumpled body lying in the floor. "Do you know what's   
wrong?" Tails stepped forward and showed the Doctor the WristCom. "Knuckles, you have made me   
a very busy doctor. This is going to take a while. Sonic, Tails, help me get him on the strecher.   
With their help, within a minute Brian was lying on the strecher. Dr. Quack wheeled Brian into the O.R.   
and begun to stop bleeding and heel bone using the MedScan. After his shoulder was back in place, Quack   
gave him a shot of morphene and begun to operate on his knee. He was in surgery for 5 hours.   
During this time, Sally had organized a meeting of the senior freedom fighters. She had called Geoffery St. John,   
but he said he had a lot of work and would not be able to make it untill tomorrow. Other than that, the only   
other person invited to the meeting besides the freedom fighters was Knuckles, due to the fact that this was   
dealing with the person he had beaten senseless just a few hours ago. Soon, Sonic, Sally, Antoine, Bunnie, Rotor,   
and Knuckles were seated in the meeting hall. "Ladies and Gentlemen, please be seated." Everyone took   
their proper place at the table.She looked around and looked at Rotor. "Where's Tails?" Rotor looked at her. "He's in the shop   
cleaning up" She shook her head. "Ok, Let's get started." She sat down. "As all of you know, this afternoon, Brian met with some   
unfortunate luck. He was not killed, but severly hurt. Normally I would just write this off as a misunderstanding. Except for one thing.   
After Knuckles attacked him, he begun to speek in perfect Mobian, like he grew up with it." She took a deep breath brfore   
comtinuing. "My question is, how did he learn so quickly? Is he telling the truth about himself? I want some opinions." She sat and waited.   
"Well," Sonic spoke up when no one else would. "For all we know the WristCom could have somehow taught him." He looked   
at Rotor. "From what he told you, could that be possisible?" Rotor leaned his body forward, sat his elbows on the table,   
and sighed. He rested his head in one of his hands. "The device taps into the users nervous system, so if given the   
right instruction..." He looked at everyone. "Yeah, It should be posisible."   
Sally looked at him. "Thank you. In light of recent events, I believe that it may be that he is lying to us. Due to this,   
I am calling in St. John, and giving him orders to watch Brian like a hawk. Antoine spoke up. "Sally, you know how St. John is   
with terrans, and even though Brian is not a terran, do you think you can trust St. John to be accurate?"   
Sally looked grim. "I don't know, but I do know that until Brian shows that he can be trusted, he will be under constant survailence.   
This will not be left to chance." Sonic, who had been quiet the entire meeting, now spoke. "I have a very good idea on how to test him."   
All at the table turned to look at him. "When we go to Robotropolis in 4 days, take him with us and see how he reacts." Sally smiled.   
"That could work, but St. John is still coming. Does eveybody agree on the plan?" Six hands went up. Knuckles wasn't voting since he was   
not a official member of Knothole. "Good. Good night, you are all dismissed." Everyone stood up and stood up and walked out the door.


	7. Night Time in Knothole

The Robotnic Complex Chapter 7  
  
Location: Knothole Date: March 7, 4580-2:30 A.M. Tails was sitting in front of the briefcase-sized mainframe computer that Brian had brought with him. He silenced a yawn and took another swig of his coffee. He was tired, but kept working through his fatigue. This technology was incredible. Rotor was long since asleep. Tails smiled. 'It's sad, but pretty soon I won't be able to pull off all-nighters like this anymore. Ah, the joys of growing up.' He put down the mug of coffee and continued his examination of the computer. A minute later he heard a soft noise on the other side of the lab. He jumped up and sat down the meter. "Hello?" He called out into the lab. He reached into his leather jacket and pulled out a small handgun. It was silver with 12 round capacity. Amy had given it to him last christmas. He smiled at the thought of her. 'I wonder how she's doing?' Tails hadn't seen her for 7 months now. She was his best friend. They both knew what it was like to not belong. He had asked her to move to knothole, but she had declined saying that she prefered the wilderness. Some people thought that their friendship might someday evolve into something more, but Tails and Amy didn't want that. They were happy with the way things were. 'Snap out of it Tails, you need to focus.' He drew a clip out of his jacket pocket and loaded the gun. He crept silently across the floor of the lab towards the door, where he heard the noise. He was about 10 feet from the door when he heard a voice from behind him. "Tails!" He spun around and found a target for the gun. It was Amy. He quickly holstered the gun. He smiled. "Amy, you nearly gave me a heart attack!" She smiled at him. "I'm glad to see you too." She walked up and hugged him. "How have you been Tails?" He hugged Amy back. I'm good. And do I have a story to tell you..." She came with Tails and he told her all about the ship and Brian, up to the part where Knuckles sent Brian into the hospital. Her face was horror-striken when he was done. "That's horrible! Let's go see him!" He looked at her in surprise. "Amy, It's 2 in the morning. Don't you think you should wait until tomorrow?" She blushed. "Oh yeah..." Tails smiled at her. "Don't worry, I've said worse than that. Say, I'm about to quit for the night. Want to get a cup of coffee?" She grinned. "Sure, is the kitchen open this late?" Tails walked to the bench to get his glasses and turned off the computer. "Yeah, there open. By the way, where are you staying?" She looked towards the floor. "I was wondering if maybe you had a extra room open...I could stay with you." Tails looked up from the console. He was getting a...feeling that something was wrong. "Amy..." He spoke softly, "What's wrong?" She looked up and he could see the tears in her eyes. "You've been telling me it would happen for years, but I never actully belived it would. Robotnic finally found my house and destroyed it. I barely escaped. But everything I own..." She was sobbing by this time. He walked over to her and sat her down. He hugged her. "Amy don't cry. Things like this happen. You can move in with me and start over again." She sniffed and loooked up at Tails. "You mean that? Are you sure?" He looked up at her. "Amy, your my best friend. I will help you in any way I can." Amy started to smile through her tears. "Thank you Tails." He grabbed a towel off the bench and begun to dry her tears. "So," he asked softly. "Are you still up for a cup of coffee?" She laughted and stood up. "Sure! Shall we?" He smiled and stood up. He walked over and shut off the main breaker. "Let's go." They walked out the door, stoping only to lock the door.  
  
********************  
  
Dr. Quack was sitting at his desk in the Knothole medical clinic. He was reclined in his chair, at his desk, reading a magazine. After the incident with Brian, things had gone slow again. Not that he minded that, but it was boring on the night shift. Brian was lying on the hospital bed sleeping. The morphene was begining to wear off and his slumber was going to a dream state. His eyelids were slowly twiching. He suddenly bolted upward and screamed. Dr. Quack bolted up from his chair and grabbed his tranqulizer gun and ran toward Brian's room. The screaming cut off just before he entered the room. "Brian!" he said, just before going to his bedside. "What's wrong?" Brian was gasping for air. "What happened to me and where am I?" Quack sat down beside him. "You were severely injured by Knuckles, a friend of ours." Brian's head went down. "Sound's like this guy don't like me. Or is this a grunge for all 'Terrans'." Quack frowned. If you think that was bad, wait until you meet St. John, he is going to hate you." Brian just sighed. "Where are my clothes? I need to leave. I feel like coffee. Any place this side of Mobius serve a decent cup at this hour?" Quack raised his hand at him. "Hold up a sec, you still need to hear the rest." Brian sighed and layed back. He ajusted the bed so that he and Quack were eye level. "OK Doc, go ahead. Quack smiled and sat back down. "Good. Now, Sally has arranged for you to have your own hut. You have access to the lab but nowhere else. Sally will tell you why tomorrow. You also can go to the kitchen, but that's it. Your house is number 53. The kitchen is north of here. You can go there and get coffee. If there is nothing else, I will leave you to get dressed." Brian sat up. "One thing Doc. Why the restricted access?" Quack became very still. "I am not allowed to discuss this with you." Quack went outside and grabbed a clipboard. "Sign here and your discharged." Brian signed the forms and handed the pen to Quack. Quack, in turn, handed him a bag. "Here are all of your belongings. Good day." Quack walked out and went back to his office. Brian quickly got dressed and put on his dogtags and his WatchCom. He swiched it on. ::WatchCom Online:: (Beep Beep) "WatchCom online, waiting command." Brian smiled. ::Standby and wait for further commands:: The watch beeped three more times and shut down. He walked out of the medical lab.   
  
********************  
  
"So, you were right. They are open late." Tails smiled at Amy. "Yeah, I told you- hey, is that Brian?" Tails was looking down the street and saw the man heading toward the kitchen. "Hey Brian!" Brian looked up from the path that he was walking and saw Tails and Amy."Hello Tails...Who is this?" Tails looked over at Amy and saw her looking down. He chuckled. "This is my friend Amy. Amy, meet Brian." Brian smiled. "Hello, nice to meet you." He extended his hand toward the young hedgehog. She loked up and accepted the hand. "Same here." Brian looked at the both of them for a second before breaking the growing silence. "Well, what are you two doing out at 3 in the AM?" Tails spoke. "We were coming from the lab to get a cup of coffee before turing in. Care to join us?" Brian smiled. "Funny. I was about to do the same thing." They turned and begun walking toward the Kitchen. Once the went inside, Brian froze immediatly. Knuckles was sitting at a far table. He stood up an begun to walk toward them at once. He slowed as he approched the trio. He stopped directly in front of them. "Tails, Amy," He said with a slight chill in his voice. "Do you mind if I speak to Brian alone?" Before either of them could answer, Brian told them to go sit and would join them shortly. After they left, he turned to Knuckles. "What do you want... Knuckles, was it?" Brian tried to say as casully as possisible. In truth, he was scared to death. He would never say himself weak, but the way he had moved earlier...Brian knew that without the WristCom as a assistant, he would never stand a chance. Knuckles leaned toward his face and whispered as softly as he could. "Two things. One, I am sorry about beating you senseless today. Two..." Here Knuckles paused, as if to collect his thoughts. "Sally seems to trust you, as least partially. But me, I'll believe when I see. So just be aware...I'm watching you." He then casully walked up to the exit and left. Brian pondered Knuckles words as he went to a seat by Amy and Tails. Tails looked up from Amy as Brian aproched the table. "What was that about?" Brian just shook his head. "Nothing...Nothing at all." Tails looked at Brian for a second. "Right. Well, the coffee is on the counter." Brian turned to the counter behind him. He walked to it and picked up a cup, filled it up, and sat back down. After a second, Brian looked to him. "Brian, If you don't mind, could I ask you a few questions?" Brian took a drink. He quickly sat the cup down and coughed rather hard. "Jesus, what do you put in this. This is strong!" Tails just laughed. "Your on a completely different planet, and you expected things to be the same?" Brian just took a deep breath. "No...but...Damn! That is strong!" Tails just laughed as he took a drink. "Don't worry. You'll either get used to it or have a mental episode." Brian just looked at Tails. Tails looked up from the table. He smiled. "I was kidding!" Brian smiled. "Oh...Now, did you say something about questions?" Tails sat his cup down. "Oh yeah! First, and I think this is what all of knothole is curious about, how is it that without even trying you can speak fluent Mobian?" Brian put his head down on the table. He sighed before continuing. "Part of my guardian training involved learning how to quickly interpret languages. The training was ment for computer language, but the concept still remains the same for spoken languages." Tails looked at Amy. She leaned forward. "Brian," She said softly. "You don't like to talk about your past, do you?" He just let his head rest on the table. Finally, about a minute later, Brian answered. "It's just that, there are certain parts that I want to be forgotten." He picked his head up off the table and drank the rest of his coffee. "Excuse me, I want to go and check out my living arrangement. I will see you tomorrow Tails. Nice meeting you Amy. Good night." He turned and walked out the door before either could respond. Brian walked up the small path to the hut that had been assigned to him. 'Hmmm...Quaint, yet cozy.' He thought to himself as he walked in the front door. He checked his watch and saw it was 3:28 in the morning. "Better get some sleep." He said to no one in paticular. He saw a couch in the middle of the room. He layed down on it and was almost instantly asleep. Amy and Tails were walking towards his house. They were silent for a long time. "Tails," Amy finally spoke up. "Thank you for doing this. I doubt that anyone else would have been this nice to me." Tails looked over at her and laughed. "YOu don't have to thank me Amy. Your my friend. Why wouldn't I do this?" She didn't say anything else. They got to his door and they walked in. He led her to his spare room. "It's not much, but..." Amy interupted him. "This is fine! Thank you Tails." He just smiled at her. "Good night Amy." "Good night Tails. See you in the morning." Tails backed out of the room and closed the door. He walked across the hall into his room. He took off the jacket, his holster, and his gloves. He walked over to the bed and sat down. He took off his sneakers and layed down. A flick of a swich, and he was in darkness. Knothole was quiet once more. 


	8. To the Armory we will go!

The Robotnic Complex   
Chapter 8   
  
Location: Knothole, Hut 53  
  
The morning was still. Not one sound crept through the small village. But,   
in front of hut 53, movement. Sonic and Tails walked softly up the path to  
the hut and knocked softly on the door. "Come." They heard a voice from the  
inside say. They opened the door slowly and entered. Brian was sitting on   
the couch siping a cup of coffee he had brewed earlier. Sonic walked up to   
him. "Good morning, I hope you slept well." Brian sighed. "I only sleep   
1 hour a night, unless of course I'm forced to, like when Knuckles  
knocked me out and Dr. Quack put me to sleep." Tails looked confused. "Why  
don't you sleep?" Brian stood up and put the cup on the table. "The process   
that allowed me to become a guardian and interact with computers has a very  
strange effect on my body. I barely need sleep, and I hardly need to eat. The  
only thing I still need in regular amounts is water." Brian turned toward   
them. He pointed at the coffee pot. "Do you want some coffee?" They both   
accepted and set down at the table. "So," Brian asked as he poured their   
coffee. "What brings you here at..." He glanced at his watch. "6 AM?" Sonic  
started to answer but brian broke in. "How do you take your coffee?" Tails  
and Sonic responded at the same time. "Black." He handed them the cups and   
sat himself down. "Please, continue." Sonic sipped at his coffee. "Very well.  
We are taking a trip to Robotropolis in 2 days and we may need assistance. I   
was wondering if you might join us." Brian just looked at them. Finally, he  
spoke. "And this couldn't wait until later this morning...? Why?" "Well, one   
thing is that we have no idea your level of combat skills. We need to run you   
through our training course. And you need a weapon besides the watch, so we   
need to stop at the Armory. Are you in?" Brian stood up and put his cup in   
the sink. "Ok, but one thing. Can you give me 15 minutes to get ready? I need  
a shower and a change of clothes...damn, their all still in the lab." Sonic   
quickly cut in. "Sally and I brought over all your stuff and put it in the   
bedroom." Brian walked into the back hallway, throwing a thank you over his   
shoulder. A minute later the shower was running. Sonic and Tails walked into   
the front room and sat down. Tails spoke. "Sonic, I'm worried about St. John   
and Knuckles. When does St. John arrive?" Sonic thought for a second. "I   
think later this afternoon...right when were at the hand to hand combat   
training. And you know St. John is going to want to lock horns with Brian the   
first chance he has." Tails sighed. "Were in for a long day..."  
Brian stepped out of the shower feeling refreshed. He reached over  
and pulled a towel off the rack and begun to dry himself off. After he was   
done, he pulled a can of 25 century old shaving cream out of him bag. He  
pushed the button...and it still worked. 'Hmmm...Humans may have ruined their  
planet, but wow! Can we make a can of shaving cream or what?' He grimmly   
chuckled at the joke and begun to apply the cream. He shaved, washed his   
face off, and applied aftershave. He ran a hand over the cool, now bare skin   
of his face. "That," he said to himself, "Is much better." He pulled on his  
black boxers and his guardian uniform pants. They were black and skintight,   
consisting of a nanofiber that was as light as a feather and strong as steel.  
Then came the socks. Also made of the nanofiber, they were waterproof and,  
since made of nanofiber, fireproof. His boots, which he put on next, were leather  
with zippers instead of shoelaces. The belt he owned was a feat of innovation   
itself. It was a standard belt, only with a liquid holster that could hold any  
size gun securely up to a rocket launcher. His shirt was also made of nanofiber   
and was a bright green, skintight, T-Shirt. It had a United Hackers Force logo  
on the left breast. Finally, he took a full-length leather jacket out of the   
bag and put it on. The jacket didn't have anything special about it, but   
combined with the other articles of clothing, he looked intimadating. He   
combed his hair back and smiled at himself in the mirror. "Lock and load."  
Tails heard a sound of metal-on-metal as the bedroom door opened. He  
saw Brian and gasped. Sonic turned in his seat and had the same reaction.  
"Are you guys ready?" Sonic shut his mouth. "Um...Yeah. Let's go." They all   
walked out the front door.   
Sonic pulled a ID card out of his pocket and punched the number on the   
card into the card reader. The door to the armory slid open without a sound   
and Brian, Sonic, and Tails walked into the room beyond. Tails flicked a switch  
on the wall and the room was illuminated to show racks upon racks of every type   
of gun, bomb, sword, cannon... anything you could think of, it was there. Brian  
stood there in awe for a second before snapping back to reality. "Wow..." was all  
he could say. "We don't like using the weapons inside the city because Robotnic   
can pick up the energy signature and trace it back to us. And we can't make the  
regular firearms work because of the noise they make, which would also attract   
attention, so we're stuck with hand to hand, swords, or staffs." Brian walked   
forward and investigated what looked like a sawed-off shotgun. "If I could get   
one of these to work, can I use it?" Sonic chuckled. "Go ahead and try." Brian  
picked the gun off the shelf. Suddenly, he flicked his wrist and spun the gun.  
A blank was loaded and he quickly holstered the gun. "This is going to be fun."  
Brian picked up a simple wooden staff and also but that into the holder. "You   
guys ready?" Tails checked his jacket pocket to make sure his gun was still   
holstered, and Sonic checked his shoes and their attachments. "Hold up. If the  
noise is such a big deal, then why is he carrying a handgun?" Brian asked them,  
now confused. "This gun has a built in silencer. We can't use regular screw-on   
silencers because the city security network still detects the sound and trips   
the intruder alarm." Tails told Brian. Sonic glanced at his watch. "We better   
get going if we want to make it through at least half the course before 2 PM."  
Brian loked at Sonic. "What happens at 2?" Sonic and Tails glanced at each other.  
They were both still worried about St. John, but they just had to deal with him   
when he got to Knothole. "Nothing Brian. Lets just get to the course." They all   
turned and walked out the door, Sonic locking the armory behind them. 


	9. The Calm Before the Storm

The Robotnic Complex  
Chapter 9  
  
Location: Knothole Training Grounds 7:00 AM  
"Ok Brian, this course will consist of 23 different activities that   
you must pass in order to gain mission clearence. As you move on, each  
activity moves up in skill required. You mill most likely use everything you  
learn here in the field, so pay attention. And until you get your weapon   
working, you will not be allowed to practice with it, so use the staff only.  
Any questions?" Sonic looked straight at Brian. They both had a serious look  
on their faces. "No, I'm good." Sonic shook his head. "Also, I will be your  
instructor today and Tails will be your assistant. On a few of the activities,  
2 people are required, so he will help you. Until then, your on your own."  
Brian shook his head in understanding and pulled out a wooden staff. "Ok,   
what's the first thing I have to do?" Sonic pointed to a couple of trees  
marked with small red tags. "See those 2 trees? Walk between them." Brian   
glanced over his shoulders and looked at Sonic. "Go ahead," Sonic warned,   
"But be carful." Brian readied his staff and began walking toward the trees  
in a guarded walk. When he was about a foot away from the center opening   
between the trees, the bark on each tree slid away to release a laser rifle,  
aimed directly at Brian's forehead. He quickly turned the staff so it was   
vertical between the rifles and forcefully spun the staff. They both burst  
into a shower of sparks before fading away. Brian spun to face them. "This  
is a hologram?" Sonic and Tails started laughing. "Do you know how difficult  
it would be to keep this course operating if everything was real?" Sonic asked  
Brian. "Hmmm...Good point. But I really miss my left arm. This would be a lot   
easier if I had both arms. Anyway, let's keep going." Brian and Tails walked   
over to the next part of the course. Here, Brian had to run a mile in under 3   
minutes. Sonic explained to him that in Robotropolis, he would have to be fast  
in order to avoid the robotic guard. So Brian ran and covered the track in under   
2 minutes. "Very good. I'm impressed." Sonic gave praise to Brian as he   
completed the circle. "Shall we move on?" Brian asked. Sonic smiled. "I like  
your determination. We could use more people like you. Let's keep going."  
They kept up the training and the hours flew by. Tails and Sonic were  
both impressed with both the strength and agility he showed during training.  
By 2 o'clock, he had cleared the course and passed the dexterity test by   
removing a pair of handcuffs in under one minute. It was 10 'till 2 and Sonic,   
Tails, and Brian were drinking water and resting on Brian's couch. "So," Brian asked.  
"When does this St. John guy get here?" Tails glanced at his watch. "He should be   
here shortly." Just then, a slight rumbling sound passed overhead. "That would be  
him. Oh God, this is going to be...interesting." Tails spoke before standing and  
putting his water in the kitchen. Sonic and Brian followed and they all walked  
toward the hoverdock.  
  
Location: Knothole Hoverdock 2:00 PM  
  
"Sally, damn it, I told you! Lock him up!" Geoffery shouted at the  
princess. She just stood there for a momment, then started to yell back about how   
not to invade into her villages affairs. Brian, Tails, and Sonic were approaching  
from behind St. John. "Judging from his additude with her, I don't think I'm  
going to like this guy." Brian said to Sonic and Tails before they stepped onto   
the pad. "You ain't seen nothing yet." Sally leaned toward St. John. "It looks  
like your new friend is here." St. John spun around to face Brian. He walked over   
and in a calm voice, spoke to Brian while sticking his finger into Brian's chest.  
"I don't like you. I don't like your friends or your family. I don't like your  
dog, cat, fish, or even hamster. I don't bleeding care why you came here, or even   
where you came from, but I do know, and that makes me dislike you even more, almost   
to the point of loathing you." St. John then stepped back and waited. Brian thought  
for a momment, then stepped toward St. John. "Geoffery, you really need a melvin."  
"What's a melvin?" St. John asked without realizing he just stepped into a trap.  
"This." Brian said to him. Brian then pulled St. John's uniform top over his head. He   
then grabbed St. John around the throat and slammed him down onto the plastic pad.   
"Leave well enough alone, St. John, and leave the rest of my race out of this. You may  
not like me, but I am here and I will remain here until I am told otherwise by Sally,   
since I am in the understanding that this is her village. So deal with me and me alone."  
Brian stood up, and walked away from a stunned Sonic, Sally, and Tails. St. John,   
however, was pissed. "Fine, I will deal with you." He stood up and walked toward  
the city center, where Brian was talking with Amy. "This," Sally sighed. "Could get pretty  
ugly." She ran to catch up with St. John, with Sonic and Tails behind her.  
  
********************  
  
"Hi Amy. What's up?" Amy heard a voice from behind her say. She spun around and  
looked at Brian. "Brian, hi! I thought that you were still training?" He shook his head.  
"Nope, I'm done...Hod did you know I was training?" "I heard Tails get up to  
go with you and asked him what he was doing. He told me...um, why does St. John looked   
pissed? And why is he coming toward us?" Brian turned around in time to recieve a right   
hook into his jaw. He his the ground hard. "Ha," Geoffery laughed. "What a wussy." He was   
about to kick Brian when a shout rang through the air. "St. John, what the hell do you think  
your doing?" He smirked ar her. "Finishing what I started, Princess." Brian kicked St. John  
in the chin and knocked him down. Brian stood up and looked as St. John. "Wrong-o." St. John   
was up in a second. He knew people were begining to gather around but he didn't give a damn.  
Or even if he did, it still didn't stop him from trying to tackle Brian. Brian quickly doged  
the tackle and tripped St. John, landing him directly face flat into the dirt.  
Sonic and Tails rushed forward to restrain the two, while Sally went between them.  
"Sonic, Tails, bring them to the labratory. No one's in there right now." Sonic and Tails picked  
the two up and walked them to the labratory. "Sit down." Sally told them as they approached the   
table. They did. She looked at them for a second before speaking. "St. John, I have to say that   
you got what you deserved. You went up to Brian and invoked him, and he reacted." St. John started   
to speak but was cut off. "And Brian, although he did invoke you and you were pissed, you did not need  
to react that way. And both of you, if you have something nasty to say to each other, you say it in   
private, not in front of the village of Knothole. And if privacy dosn't permit itself, YOU BITE YOUR  
FUCKING TOUNGE! You may not realize this yet, but you are both guest in my city, and if I here about   
another problem with either of you, you'll be thrown in the brig so fast it will make your head spin!  
Dismissed!" They both stood up to leave. "Not you Brian, I need to talk to you alone." St. John walked  
out of the lab and headed toward his hovercycle, pissed at a certain human.  
  
********************  
  
"What do you want princess?" Brian asked her. He would of liked to started working on his gun, but  
he waited quietly for her to talk to him. "Since you have arrived you have been disruptful. I will not stand  
for that. You are more than welcome to stay here in Knothole for as long as you want or need to. But remember,  
you are not a citizen yet. All I ask from you is that you stay in the areas that the Doctor told you about last  
night. If you prove yourself uesful on missions and you can get along with our citizens, then you will become  
a citizen and you will have free access to the entire village. Until then, you are limited to the lab, your  
quarters, and the mess hall. If you need to go somewhere else, you must have a escort. Is that acceptable?"   
Brian sighed. "Yeah, I guess. Just tell your guy St. John to back off. That cool?" Sally shook her head. "I   
will, but I don't know if he will listen. See you later Brian." Sally walked out the door. Sonic and Tails  
looked at Brian and laughed. He smiled at them. "What's so funny?" Sonic chuckled. "It's just that almost all  
of Knothole would have gave everything they had to do what you did to St. John. I would have gladly gave every  
cent I have. I really don't like him, and that's the genaral opinion of the village. I have to get going. See  
you guys later." Sonic walked out the dor of the lab still chuckling. Tails turned to Brian. "Make sure to get   
ready for the mission tomorrow, it got pushed up. You'll need at least two weapons and stop by the Doc's for a personal medikit."  
Brian turned to face Tails. "Who's all going tomorrow?" Tails thought for a moment. "Me, Amy, Sally, You, Sonic, and Geoffery   
St. John. Make sure to have everything ready. I'll see you tomorrow." Tails turned and walked out the door. He saw Amy across the  
street and went to join her. They walked around a little bit and sat down by the ring pond. They started talking and their   
discussion eventully led to Brian."I think he's a good man. A little frayed around the edges maybe, but then who wouldn't be after  
all he's went through." Amy said. Tails shook his head in agreement. "Yeah, and he's one of those people that would back anyone up,  
no matter what." "But," Began Amy. "Don't you think he's hiding something? I mean, I can't tell what it is, but I'm getting the   
feeling it's not good." Tails sighed. "What ever it is, only time will tell what darkness lies in his past. I'm getting kinda   
chilly Amy, want to start walking back?" She shook her head in agreement. "Let's go." They hopped off the bench they had been  
sitting on and walked back to Knothole.  
Brian was sitting in the darkened workshop, alone. It was 9:00 PM. He had been working all day and he had finally got the gun  
to work in the way that was safe to fire in Robotropolis. Now he sat, staring into the darkness that surrounded him. "Could it be true?  
Could I have done this?" He spoke out into the darkness to no one in paticular. "Tomorrow, Tomorrow we will see." He stood up and walked  
out into the night, closing and locking the door behind him.  
All throughout Knothole lights dimmed and doors locked. The hoverport shut off it's lights and set the collision alarm. Everyone   
settled in, as tomorrow, the storm would come.  
  
  
  
  
Author's Note: I have been pretty depressed these last couple of weeks and that's why it tok so long for this chapter. I am really  
sorry and I am starting Chapter 10 tomorrow after school. Remember, suggestions are always welcome at:  
  
acid_2000@hmcltd.net  
  
theacidmethod@hotmail.com  
  
Peace! Brian B. 


	10. Interlude 1

The Robotnic Complex  
  
Chapter 10  
  
Interlude 1  
  
Author's Note: This is the first of four interludes that I plan to write for this story. Reading these is not nessassary for the story but may give you a deeper understanding of the characters actions and morals as the story moves on.  
  
Tails crept silently out of the room he had been laying in, trying to sleep. but for some reason, sleep eluded him on this night, the night before their first raid with Brian. Tails was sure they could trust the man, but their was something  
  
that was...creepy about the way Brian moved, talked, anything. It was as if Tails had seen it all before somwhere, but he could not place it. He had been thinking about that when he went to his bed to try to sleep, but it kept bugging him. So he decided to relax in the only way he knew would bring sleep. He walked into the front room and opened the closet door softly so he didn't wake Amy. He moved his Electric Guitar out of the way so he could reach his Accustic Guitar. He picked up the case by the strap and closed the closet door. He layed the Guitar down on the couch and put his shoes and jacket on. He picked up the guitar and walked out the door, closing it softly behind him. A few seconds later a pink hedgehog opened the dor to her room. 'Where is he going?' Amy thought to herself. She walked back into her room and came back out again a few seconds later wearing her shoes. 'I'll just follow him to make sure he isn't doing something stupid.' She walked out the door and closed the door behind her. The hut was silent once again.  
  
********************  
  
Tails sat on top of a hill overlooking the Ring Grotto and Knothole, with the guitar in his lap. He was thinking of what to play. He remembered a piece of music he found in a box of supplies. It was hard to learn because he had never heard anything like it before. He put the strap around his neck and started playing. He never heard Amy come up behind him.  
  
When dreaming I'm guided to another world  
  
Time and time again  
  
At sunrise I fight to stay asleep  
  
'Cause I don't want to leave the comfort of this place  
  
'Cause there's a hunger, a longing to escape  
  
From the life I live when I'm awake  
  
So let's go there  
  
Let's make our escape  
  
Come on, let's go there  
  
Let's ask can we stay?  
  
Can you take me Higher?  
  
To a place where blind men see  
  
Can you take me Higher?  
  
To a place with golden streets  
  
Although I would like our world to change  
  
It helps me to appreciate  
  
Those nights and those dreams  
  
But, my friend, I'd sacrifice all those nights  
  
If I could make the Earth and my dreams the same  
  
The only difference is  
  
To let love replace all our hate  
  
So let's go there  
  
Let's make our escape  
  
Come on, let's go there  
  
Let's ask can we stay?  
  
Can you take me Higher?  
  
To a place where blind men see  
  
Can you take me Higher?  
  
To a place with golden streets  
  
So lets go there, lets go there,  
  
Come on, lets go there  
  
Lets ask can we stay?  
  
Up high I feel like I'm alive for the very first time  
  
Set up high I'm strong enough to take these dreams  
  
And make them mine  
  
Set up high I'm strong enough to take these dreams  
  
And make them mine  
  
Can you take me Higher?  
  
To a place where blind men see  
  
Can you take me Higher?  
  
To a place with golden streets  
  
Can you take me Higher?  
  
To a place where blind men see  
  
Can you take me Higher?  
  
To a place with golden streets  
  
Tails finished playing and listened as the last note was swept away by the night wind. He felt a lot better. Playing music always relaxed him. "That was beautiful Tails." Amy said from behind him. He nearly screamed from shock. "Amy! What are you doing here?" She walked beside where he was and sat down. "I couldn't sleep so I decided to follow you." Tails was silent for about a minute. Amy was about to ask him what was wrong when he spoke again. "So, you heard the song?" She nodded her head, her green eyes glistening in the moonlight reflected off the ring pond. Tails looked her in her eyes. "And you liked it?" She nodded her head. "I thought it was wonderful. You play well Tails." Tails smiled at her. "Would you like to here another Amy?" She nodded her head once again. Tails thought again and came up with a song he wrote. 'I hope she likes it.' He positioned his fingers on the strings and started playing.  
  
How many special people change  
  
How many lives are living strange  
  
Where were you when we were getting high?  
  
Slowly walking down the hall  
  
Faster than a cannon ball  
  
Where were you while we were getting high?  
  
Some day you will find me  
  
Caught beneath the landslide  
  
In a champagne supernova in the sky  
  
Some day you will find me  
  
Caught beneath the landslide  
  
In a champagne supernova  
  
A champagne supernova in the sky  
  
Wake up the dawn and ask her why  
  
A dreamer dreams she never dies  
  
Wipe that tear away now from your eye  
  
Slowly walking down the hall  
  
Faster than a cannon ball  
  
Where were you while we were getting high?  
  
Some day you will find me  
  
Caught beneath the landslide  
  
In a champagne supernova in the sky  
  
Some day you will find me  
  
Caught beneath the landslide  
  
In a champagne supernova  
  
A champagne supernova  
  
Cos people believe that they're  
  
Gonna get away for the summer  
  
But you and I, we live and die  
  
The world's still spinning round  
  
We don't know why  
  
Why, why, why, why  
  
How many special people change  
  
How many lives are living strange  
  
Where were you while we were getting high?  
  
Slowly walking down the hall  
  
Faster than a cannon ball  
  
Where were you while we were getting high?  
  
Some day you will find me  
  
Caught beneath the landslide  
  
In a champagne supernova in the sky  
  
Some day you will find me  
  
Caught beneath the landslide  
  
In a champagne supernova  
  
A champagne supernova  
  
Cos people believe that they're  
  
Gonna get away for the summer  
  
But you and I, we live and die  
  
The world's still spinning round  
  
We don't know why  
  
Why, why, why, why  
  
How many special people change  
  
How many lives are living strange  
  
Where were you when we were getting high?  
  
We were getting high  
  
We were getting high  
  
We were getting high  
  
We were getting high  
  
He finished playing and sat waiting for Amy's response. Finally she spoke. "What's the name of that song?" Tails thought for a second. He never really named it, but...'yeah, that would work' he thought to himself. He turned back toward Amy and told her. "Champagne Supernova. What do you think?" She looked Tails straight in the eyes. "I loved it." Tails noticed their faces were about 5 inches apart. "Amy..." Tails begun to ask. "Yes?" Amy responded in a shaking voice. "Can I kiss you?" She smiled at him. He leaned forward slowly, closing his eyes. They pressed their lips together, under the moonlight. They held their lips together for several seconds, neither one daring to go any further or to go back. Finally Tails separated his lips slightly, Amy soon following suit. A few seconds later Amy drew back. They looked into each others eyes. A minute later, Tails spoke. "Amy, I love you. I havn't realized it all this time, but I love you." Amy leaned toward Tails. "I love you Tails, and nothing will ever change that." They kissed again, shorter this time. "We better get back to the village, We need to get our sleep for the mission." Amy handed him the guitar case that was at her side. "Ok, Tails. I'll see you at...home." She flashed him another smile and headed down the path, toward the village. A few minutes later Tails walked down the path, smiling. He felt content. Every thing he could have hoped for from Amy now exists. They were in love, and nothing could stop them. Together, they could beat anything. Tails went into his hut and went to sleep. The next morning they would set off on a mission and he wanted to be at his best. He went to sleep almost instantly after laying down. 


	11. Departing Knothole

This is the re-rewritten version of Chapter 11, as the rewritten Chapter 11 had a mistake in it that I forgot or missed the second time. I am sorry and I thank the people that pointed it out.  
  
Brian B.  
  
Author's Note: Just to clear some things up: 1) This is a Sonic universe of my own making. I have combined severay components of the other universes to create a universe that is independent. 2) The timeline is not right. I know that. I know that the year date is not matching the T.V. Show (the good one) or the comic timeline. This is because I am not following those universes. Comprende? Good...You may now read the story, even though no one ever reads these author's notes...(SIGH)...anyway, enough rambling, ONTO THE FIC!!!  
  
The Robotnik Complex  
  
Chapter 11  
  
Location: Robotropolis Control Room 7:00 AM  
  
"Here are the latest reports from the crash, sir." Snively said to Robotnik as he finished printing out the reports. "And out spy in Knothole has informed us of a raid today, at 0900 hours. The person who survived the crash is joining them." Robotnik turned in his chair. "Very well Snively, continue monitoring of the city and inform me of any changes in activity. Activate the Proteus. Prep for a test run." Snively turned back to his panel. "We will have to bring three additional reactors online to make the Proteus operational." Robotnik smiled at the thought of all that power, under HIS control! "Very well Snively. Bring them online." Snively turned back to his panel and within a few seconds a loud thump vibrated throughout Robotropolis as 3,000 control rods raised into place and the reactors went automatically to 10% output. "Reactors online and holding." Robotnik smiled to his underling. "Very well Snively. Have the swat-bots bring up 10 prisoners and put them into the Proteus." Snively turned to the mic on the wall and pushed a button. "Swat-Bot numbers 102298 through 102306, bring 10 prisoners to the Proteus device for a multi-Robotization test. That is all." Snively pushed up the button again. Robotnik sat forward in his chair. "That's all, Snively. Carry on." Robotnik sat back as Snively continued his work. Today was going to be exquisite, even if the rodent and his friends were coming. He had more then enough Swat-Bots to handle them. It was going to be a marvous day if his newest project worked. Just thinking of it made his mouth water. A robotizer that had the ability to robotize an entire village, and no one but he and Snively knew about it! But their was one thing he was worried about, the new arrival. Robotnik did not know his or her ability. 'Now that I think about it, I have nothing to worry about, I have Swat-Bots, that is a match for anything those freedom fighters can throw at me.' He grinned at himself as he thought of his army of robots. "Bring it on, Sonic," He said softly to himself. "Bring it on..."  
  
Location: Knothole Village Common 7:15 AM  
  
Tails, Amy, Brian, Sonic, and Geoffery St. John met as ordered in the Knothole common at 7:15 in the morning. Everyone still looked sleepy, Brian, however, was wide awake. He noticed that Tails and Amy were holding hands, but everyone else seemed oblivious. 'Great, here we are going into hostile territory, and Tails and Amy are google-eyed toward one another.' Brian frowned at himself. 'I might as well lay off,' he thought. 'That may be the only happiness they have in this place.' Sally stepped into the common and they all came to attention. "Before we set off, does everyone have supplies?" They all double checked their packs, making sure that all the compartments were closed. Eventully, they all looked up to her. "OK, let's go. Oh wait, I almost forgot. Brian, you are carrying a weapon, right?" Brian pulled the modified shotgun out of his holster. Everyone gasped, you could hardly tell it had once been a regular shotgun. The barrel had been further sawed off so that it came about 1/2 inch away from the flashlight that had been added. The flashlight was about 4 inches long and was 1/2 inch away from the trigger guard. The pump had been stripped away and replaced with what as far as the others could tell, a power pack with a swich on the side. A cartrage slot stuck out horizontly above the trigger, already loaded with a 5 inch clip. The stock had been cut away with the laser and had been replaced with a metal vertical handle 5 inches long. Around the remainder of the barrel, the portion that had not been sawed away was now covered with what looked like tiny horseshoe magnets. "This alright, Princess?" Brian asked, not liking having his worked stared at. Sally continued to lok at it for a few more seconds and then looked him in the face. "You built this in a day?" She said to Brian, still in awe. "Well, I didn't really build it, just modified it a lot." Sally turned to Sonic. "Didn't you tell him about the rules?" Sonic shrugged. "I told him that if he could make a weapon that was undetectable when fired, he could use it. But I didn't actully expect him to do it." Sally turned back to Brian. "Is is undetectable?" Brian nodded his head in confirmation. Sally turned to St. John, who had his arms crossed and was looking toward the ground. "Geoffery, what do you think?" St. John just stared at the ground, not making a sound. "Geoffery...?" Sally asked again. He raised his head. "To be honest princess, I think this is a terrible mistake. Not only are you allowing him a weapon we know nothing about, but we can't even be certain that it won't give away out position." Brian holstered his gun. "Get Rotor out here with a scanner. He can check it." Sally shook her head. "No, I'll trust your word, you've been straight with us so far. Are you sure the weapon emits no energy when the round is fired?" Brian pulled another round out of the belt bag he had on and pushed a small button. A small silver colored about the size of a marble, but a little smaller and squared off on one end, popped out of the cartrage. Brian put the cartrage back in the holster and picked the round up off the ground and held it out to Sally for expection. "This is a round for the gun. It's propelled by a magnetic field so there's no noise from the gun. The round can be set to be superheated when fired, so it spreads out and causes more damage. The magnets are finely tuned so that no magnetic field is detectable-each magnet cancels another out. Their are no moving parts, it's all operated on a magnetic basis. The bullet is made out of regular metal, but is not magnetized itself. The chamber-" Sonic busted into Brian's monolouge. "OK, OK, we believe the gun can't be detected! Can we get moving?" They all agreed. They all walked over toward the hovershuttle they would take to the city. Sonic and Sally walked behind the rest, conversing about something. When they all got to the shuttle, Brian started to get in the back with the others, but Sonic stopped him. "Sit up front with me. You need to learn to pilot the shuttle. Sally and I both agree." Brian headed toward the passenger door, but Sonic stopped him once again. "Sit in the pilot's seat. You'll fly us into Robotropolis." Brian raised his eyebrows at this, but did what he was told. He opened the Pilot's side door and got inside the craft. It reminded him of the cars on earth, just with hover ability. He moved around in the seat, got comforatable, and reached over his left shoulder. Just as he thought their would be, a belt was their. He reached toward the floor and grabbed the harness lock. He slid the belt into place and pushed the metal tab into the slot marked 'left'. He reached over his right shoulder and grabbed his other belt and put it on too. He looked beside him just as Sonic finished putting his harness on. He looked over to Brian. "Ready?" Brian couldn't help himself. "I was born ready." He said to Sonic as he adlibed a old movie he had once seen. "Then let's go. The joystick beside yout right hand controls steering, and the handle beside your...umm...left hand controls thrust. But since you don't HAVE a left hand, I'll control thrust. But since you are going to get a artificial hand, I might as well teach you the rest. This is a old shuttle, so don't push it past 75% unless you need to. If you need to push it, keep your eye on the structural integrity ratio on the monitor in front of you. If at any time the number on the left matches or is larger than the number on the right, throttle down to 15% thrust right away. After the structural limit is matched or passed, you have about 25 seconds before structure faliure. That's a bad thing. There's more, but I'll handle it today. Put on your headset and let's roll." Brian picked the headphones off the dash and put them on. He saw Sonic lean forward and push something, then began to talk through the mic connected to the headphones. "Knothole Hoverdock Control, this is Shuttle Oasis, codename Alpha-Omega-1-1-0 requesting launch clearance." Brian waited a moment and then heard Antoine respone. "Shuttle Oasis, codename Alpha-Omega-1-1-0, launch clearance granted. Shift to outer launch ring, launch go in five minutes. Good luck Oasis. Over and Out." Brian looked at another monitor that was flashing, telling him the direction in which he must go. Sonic throttled to 10% and Brian maneuvered the shuttle to the entrance to the outer launch ring. "The launch rings are small circles dug under the ground around Knothole, circling the village once each. At different points in the Great Forest, the tunnels emerge and you go through the Great Forest to your destination. The rings are so that the exaust trails don't leed back to Knothole, and they allow shuttles and cargo transports to build up speed before emerging into the forest." Sonic pointed toward a chronometer counting down toward zero. "When that hits zero, I'll throtle up to 50% percent and you guide us through the outer tunnel." Brian took a deep breath. He had to be calm, he told himself over and over again. He glanced at the timer. 15 seconds. He placed his hand on the joystick. It felt cool in his grasp. 10 seconds. He saw Sonic place his hand on the back-up throttle. 5 seconds. He checked the main monitor. All green. "3..." He heard a computer say in a rough, grinding voice. "2...1...Launch..." As soon as Sonic heard the computer reach zero, he pushed the throttle up to 50% and waited. Nothing happened. "LAUNCH NOW." The computer groned at them again. "What happened?" He asked as he glanced sideways at the hedgehog. Sonic had a questioning look on his face then smiled. "I forgot to activate the ignitor." Sonic reached forward and flicked two swiches. Brian heard a loud thump behind him, and then was pushed back into his seat as the shuttle went from 0-50 in 0.9 seconds. "What the hell?" Brian yelled as they entered the outer ring. "Sorry," Sonic said. "I forgot to warn you about that little kick." Brian focused his attention forward into the darkness of the tunnel. "Warning: Curve begining." the computer warned him just before the tunnel began to curve. Brian moved the joystick smoothly with the tunnel curve, only rocking the shuttle slightly. "You're a natural. A few more lessons and you might fly this crate better than...Sally." Brian loked over toward Sonic. He had not known him for long, but was getting the sense that pride was a big part of his personality. Brian sighed. This was going to be a long day.  
  
********************  
  
Sonic pulled back on the throttle as they emerged into a clearing, dropping it down to 25% thrust, or 25 Miles per hour. Brian glanced at the navigation monitor, confirmed his heading, and throttled back up to 50% thrust. In the back of the shuttle, a very interesting conversation was going on. Geoffery and Sally were discussing Brian and Knothole. "I'm telling you Sally, you will regret the day you helped that man and saved his life. he is nothing but a risk. He-" Sally interupted him sharply, cutting off St. John. "But their are many things that he could bring to the rebellion. The robotizicer, for intance, is said by it's inventor, Charles, to be a irreversable process. But perhaps it just needs looked at by a fresh mind not crushed by the prospect of creating possisably the most destructive device ever produced. He should at least be given a chance to prove his worth." St. John huffed, crossed his arms, and sat back in his seat. Before he closed his eyes to nap, he said one last thing to Sally. "Princess, you are making a terrible mistake."  
  
Back near the emergency exit at the rear of the shuttle, Amy were also sleeping. Amy had her head lain in Tails lap and was slumbering peacefully. Tails looked down at her. 'She looks so peaceful...' He thought to himself as he layed a hand on her shoulder. 'It's a shame...were both so young and already engaged in gurrilla warfare. Damn Robotnik! I can't wait until were free...' Tails layed his head back and went to sleep. This was going to be a long ride , he knew, because the shuttle couldn't maneuiver well once they entered the thicker part of the forest. They would have to slow down considerably.  
  
Three minutes later, Sonic did exactly that. He set the throttle at zero, and turned toward Brian. "We can't maneuver in this shit. We have to slow down." Brian looked at Sonic. "How much longer until Robotropolis?" Sonic looked at the monitor in front of him and pressed a few buttons. "About...3/4's of a hour if we go through this at 10% thrust, which is what I reccomend in this part of the forest." Sonic pushed the throttle to 10% thrust. Brian steered again and sighed. This WAS going to be a long day. 


	12. Robotropolis

The Robotnik Complex  
  
Chapter 12  
  
Location: Great Forest (20 Minutes from Knothole, 15 from Robotropolis)  
  
Brian was sitting in the cockpit of the shuttle, slowly making it's way toward Robotropolis. Brian looked down at the stump where his shoulder ended and his arm should have began. He sighed. "If I have to go into unarmed combat, I don't stand a chance." Brian told Sonic, who was checking their heading. Sonic looked up at him. "Maybe it's time I explain the nature of Robotropolis. You either have speed, like me, dexterity, like Tails, stealth, like Geoffery, Sally, and Amy, or strength in offense, like you. In this city, unarmed combat dosn't exist. You are fighting or sneaking from a 1/2-ton Swat-bot designed to do two thing, kill or capture. And they do it well, but not well enough. If you have a weapon, your fine. But if you don't, and you can't hide yourself good enough, your dead. We know how to fight and how to flee, and we do it well. But, if you want to survive remember 2 things: One, don't be afraid, Swat-Bots have a amazing amount of flaws when you get right down to it, and so do the other kinds of robots. They can't turn fast enough, they can't power weapons fast, and so on. Two, don't let ego or rage cloud your thinking. That will get you killed faster than anything else in the city. Three, remember, this is not friendly ground, things have a way of sneaking up on you, and the ground just seems to open up. If you remember these things, your fine. One other thing, don't destroy a worker bot." Brian curled his forhead in curosity. "Why not?" Sonic looked up from the console again. "There all slaves, it's not their fault. Inside, there still alive, still fighting. And someday, when we finally get a working version of the derobotisizer, they will all be free." Brian shook his head in understanding, sat silent for a few more minutes, than spoke again. "Why dosn't Chuck think the derobotisizer is a possisablity?" Sonic looked up at Brian, then sighed. "A year before the take over of Mobotropolis, when he was still organic, he discovered that the robotisizer turns people into mindless slaves to the programing, he tried to reverse the process. I'm really not sure how the robotisizer works, but I do know that a beam of somekind on a certain frequency and amplitude puts organic tissue into a hyperactive state and emits huge amounts of metallic elements. This changes the cells into nano-machinery. Theres a lot more to it, but from what he has told me, he couldn't get the process to work in reverse, to causing the nano-machines to emit amino acids and carbon. He could never figure out why the process of robotization only works one way." Sonic leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. "Maybe it's just something that we will never figure out." Brian didn't say anything, just kept driving. But in his mind, he was already forming a idea of why the derobotisization process tried by Charles didn't work. Organic material was a huge abount of other materials and organic materials produced these materials naturally. Anything that was alive could be transformed into virtully anything else, you just had to know how. But metal was cold, dead. They were trying to force metal to do something it couldn't do: live. 'What I have to do is not transform metal to organic matter, but make organic matter and start anew.' Brian thought. "I will build the robotisizer," Brian said to Sonic. "And then I'll succeed where Charles failed. I promise." Sonic leaned forward and sat, looking at Brian for a few minutes. He finally spoke. "I hope so." Sonic sighed. "I miss my parents. Almost no one will admit it, but we all hope for the day when someone speciol to us will be free." Sonic looked at the monitor, then back at Brian. "Do you remember your parents at all?" Brian's right arm stiffened. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to." Sonic quickly added. Brian shok his head. "No, no, It's fine. They died when I was five in a hydrogen explosion. They were on the development team for the Hydrogen separation reactor. One night the accoustic stablizer that kept the hydrogen separation stable and constant failed. The rest of the lab was evacuated in time but my parents were working on the turbine manifolds. They were trapped when the lab sealed. They were killed when something ignited the vented hydrogen trapped in the lab. The explosion decimated 2 square acres. After that, my brother and I were separated and put into separate foster homes. I never saw him again. I tried to find him when I became a Guardian, but I couldn't." Brian coughed and looked at Sonic. "So, are we there yet?" Brian asked, trying to sound cheerful, but failed. Sonic looked down at his monitor. "2 minutes from where we park, a half mile hike from there to the city boundary." Brian looked around them. "Man, this is creepy. Everything looks poisoned or dead." Sonic also looked around them. "Get used to it, this is better by far than the city." Sonic set the throttle at zero and shut off the main power. The monitors went black. Sonic and Brian hit the release buttons on their safety harnesses and opened the doors. Tails, Sally, Amy, and St. John were already outside waiting on them. "Good job, Brian. Are you sure this is your first time flying a hovershuttle?" Brian nodded his head. "Well, anyway, let's get to it." Everyone took out their weapons and prepared them. Tails took out his handgun and loaded a clip, Sally took out what looked to Brian like a cattle prod, Amy had a baseball bat, St. John took out his arrow gun and loaded a clip, Sonic just stood their waiting. Brian pulled out his shotgun and loaded a clip into it. "Where's your weapon?" Brian asked Sonic as he dropped the gun to his side. "I told you earlier, my speed...oh, that's right, you havn't seen me run yet, have you?" Brian looked quizical as he shook his head no. "We have a 1/2 mile hike ahead of us, right Sonic?" Sally asked as she clipped the cattld prod to her belt. "Yeah, Sal. What do you say we give the new guy a example." Sally smiled. "I say why not. Brian, I'll hold onto Sonic's shoulders, you hold onto mine, Tails will hold onto yours, St. John will hold onto Tails, and Amy will hold onto him." Brian raised a eyebrow in question, but before he could say anything, Sally cut him off. "Just do it, OK?" Brian nodded his head. He walked over to Sonic and held onto the hedgehog's shoulders. A second later he felt Sally grab onto his shoulders. 10 seconds later everyone was lined up behind Sonic. "Hold on tight." He told everyone. Brian cluched Sonic's shoulders. "Ready?" Sonic asked everyone. Every answered yes. "They let's juice!" Sonic said, just as he tok off at top speed, leaving the sound barrier behing them.  
  
A few seconds later he slowed down and ended up beside the city boundary. Everyone dropped their hands to their sides and walked over the the path into the city. All except Brian, who stood their open-mouthed. 'My god! A half mile in a few seconds! "That...that...was...amazing! How did you do that?" Sonic turned around. "I was just born with that ability, like some people are born with excess strength, I was born fast." Brian began to walk toward where the others were standing. "Ok" was all he said. "Then lets go." Sally said as she turned around, drew her weapon, and began forward. The other's drew their weapons and began following her. Brian noted the darkness of the city even though his watch said it was bright daylight out. He figured it was because of mass polution, since his lungs stung mildly. Tails slowed his pace so that he was beside Brian. "Remember, stealth above all else!" Tails was about to go back by Amy when Brian whispered to him. "Something is watching us. Tell Sally." Tails nodded and walked forward. A second later Sally was beside him. "How do you know that?" Brian shrugged. "I don't know, I do know however where it is." Sally glanced behind them, but didn't see anything. "Can you take it out?" She asked Brian. "Oh yes." Sally nodded. "When I stop, do it." Brian nodded and she walked forward. 10 seconds later she stopped. Brian spun around, brought up his gun, aimed, and fired within a second. He heard a electronic sizzle and a splat at a Camera-Bot fell from the sky, into a puddle of mud a few feet away. Brian lowered his weapon and walked over to investigate. "How did you do that?" St. John asked Brian, impressed with the human, even though he hated him. "I have several cybernetic devices in my body that allow me to scan the area around me for posisable threats." St. John nodded his head. "That's a camera that allows Robotnik to survey the city from the control center." Amy spoke up. He most likely already knows were here." Sally nodded in agreement with the young hedgehog. "We should keep moving." They continued through the city, slowly making their way toward a junk heap with several components they needed to build more shuttles and to keep their computers working.  
  
Location: Robotropolis Control Center  
  
Robotnik stared at the now blank monitor. He growing pailer by the second. Snively was supervising the refit of the Proteus. It had worked on the 10 prisoners, but they had come out freakishly deformed, unable to do any work of even to complete a simple task like walking. But right now, Robotnik was concerned with what he thought he saw just before the monitor went dead. 'If that was guardian Floyd, and he really is here, than no amount of offensive force will stop him from coming for me if he finds out I'm here. And Snively is another complication...Oh, No!' Robotnik spun in his chair and typed fast on a keyboard. A map of Robotropolis came up on the main screen. He typed some more and zomed in on one section of the city. Six red dots appearedon the screen. They all were headed toward a single green dot. "No!" Robotnik yelled. "Damn it!"  
  
Brian and the others had already salvaged the things they needed and Sonic had ran the parts back to the shuttle. They were about to leave for the shuttle when Brian heard something. "Shh!" He told the others. He signaled them into a alley. They crouched there with Brian and waited. A few seconds later a man in a green tunic halked by the alley. Brian grabbed him and drug him in. He pushed the man up aganst the opposite wall and shoved the buisiness end of his gun in the man's face. "Any of you know..." Brian started, but cut himself off as he regconized the man. Even though he had aged and lost most of his hair, and had somehow been partially disfigured by his nose being enlarged, nothing could stop Brian from recognizing the man who stood in front of him now. "His name's Snively, he works for Robotnik." Sally told him. "We should question him and kill him." Sonic added cold-bloodedly. Brian camly put his gun away and reached into the back of Snively's tunic. He pulled out a transmitter. Brian dropped it onto the ground and crushed it with his boot. He pulled out his gun and knocked Snively out with it. He put it away and then turned to face the group. "Please don't kill him. He's my brother." St. John snorted. "Oh, so now you feel you are part of his race?" Brian shook his head. "No, I don't know how yet, but when I say he's my brother, I mean it. He's changed a lot since i've last seen him, but I'm sure. He is my brother."  
  
Robotnik stared at the screen. "Contacts lost." Said the metallic voice of the Robotropolis computer. "Activate the Brain-Lock chip. Subject: Snively" the computer processed for a minute, them responded. "Brain-lock effective." Robotnik smiled. "So long, Snively. Have fun with your new 'friends'." The evil doctor began to laugh.  
  
"Come on, we can't be expected to believe that!" Sally hissed at Brian. "I thought you were a orphan." Brian sighed. He should have known this wouldn't come easy. "I was orphaned at five. That's when my brother and I became separated. I have no idea how he got here, but I'm sure it's him." Sally sighed. "Fine, we'll bring him back with us, but I want him under 24 hour watch until we figure this thing out." Brian nodded. "Thank you, princess." Brian turned around just as a swat-bot entered the alley, at least 100 other Swat-Bots behind him, lining the street. "Freeze!" It barked in a metallic monotone. "No one move." Brian said as he pushed his watch face. "WatchCom Online. Standing by." Brian closed his eyes and began thinking of the transport and where it was parked. He felt the energy build up inside of him. He knew this would take a lot of effort, but he knew it was there only way out. He used his senses to locate the others and exactly where they were. He felt his body fade away from himself. Someone cried out. Brian didn't care. He let loose the energy that was pent up inside of him. And he felt himself fade away.  
  
He felt himself reappear and drop to the ground like a stone behind the shuttle. 'Good,' he thought to himself. 'I got them all.' Sally and Sonic walked over to him. He felt Sally's hand on his shoulder. "My God, are you alright Brian?" Brian groaned. "All be fine, just help me up." Sonic and Sally helped him stand up. With their help he half walked, half drug himself to the shuttle. He opened the door to the rear passenger copartment, and stepped inside. He fell into the nearest seat. A few seconds later he felt someone buckle him in. A minute later he heard the engines start, and then he fell asleep. 


	13. Death Knocking at Your Door

The Robotnik Complex  
  
Chapter 13  
  
Location: Knothole: Hut 53  
  
Brian slowly opened his eyes. It was dark all around him. He slowly sat up and realized he was in his Hut, in his bedroom, back in Knothole. He was covered in a light sheet. 'What happened?' Brian thought to himself. 'The last thing I remember is...the shuttle, Swat-Bots...Snively.' He threw the sheet off of his body and stood on the floor. He still had his boots on. He walked out the door of his bedroom. He headed toward the kitchen. He pulled the filter basket out of the coffee pot and put a new filter bag in. He pushed it back into place and hit the power swich. He sat down and layed his head aganst the cool wood of the table. "Brian." Said Sonic who had walked up behind him. Brian sat up and looked behind him. Sonic was standing behind him, Sally was laying on the couch sleeping. Brian looked at Sonic in a quizical manner. "What are you two doing here? Brian said as he stod up and poured himself a cup of coffee. "Well, after we got back to the village and you were still passed out, we were worried about you so we carried you here and stayed to make sure nothing was wrong." Brian nodded. "I'm fine now, just still a little shaky from using so much energy. Hello Sally, Sit." Brian, Sally, and Sonic all sat down at the table, Brian sipping his coffee. "How did you do that, save us? If you hadn't been there, I don't know what would have happened. Thank you." Brian sat his cup down. "Remember me telling you that I could tap into energy, and use it for my own purposes?" Sonic and Sally both nodded their heads. "Well, that's not exactly true. I know exactly where the energy is coming from." Brian paused to sip at his coffee. "Where does it come from?" Sally asked, intrigued. "Electromagnetic Radiation." Sonic just looked at Brian for a second, and then a look of understanding passed over his features. "You mean like, light?" Brian smiled. "Yes, and everything else on the spectrum." Sally looked at him. "How do you concentrate the energy?" Brian pulled his watch off his hand and pushed a few buttons. Brian sat the watch in the middle of the table and a 3-D hologram of his body appeared in mid- air. He pointed to one of fifteen black spots that appeared inside the hologram. "These are selenium sulfide power cells connected to my central nervous system. The WatchCom sends a signal through my system to tell these cells to charge 10%, 20%, depending on what I tell them to do. The hightest i've used them was at 40%, and even then the energy discharge knocked me out for 5 days. To transport us to the shuttle, I used 5% and was asleep for..." Sonic glanced at the wall clock behind Brian. "About 6 hours. And since you told us you told us you hardly even sleep a hour, we got worried. Now, about Snively..." Brian nodded his head. "I already have a explanation for...him...That's odd..." Sonic stood up. "What? What's wrong?" Brian gave Sonic a quizical look. "I feel...hungry...I mean really hungry!" Sally shrugged. "So, go to the kitchen and get something to eat." Brian shook his head. "No, I shoudn't be hungry. I don't feel hunger like regular people, a monitor in my WatchCom tells me when I need food. And even then It's something small, like a piece of bread. But I feel really hungry... Does Dr. Quack have a medical scanner?" Sally and Sonic both nodded their heads. "I need to use it. Something's wrong."  
  
"Doctor, Dr. Quack, are you in here!" Brian shouted as he walked into the Knothole Infirmary. Dr. Quack came out of his office. "What do you need Brian?" Quack asked as he walked over to where Brian stood. "Doctor, I need to use your medical scanner. I think something may be wrong with one of my cybernetic implants." Dr. Quack turned and pushed open a door. "Follow me." Brian walked with Quack through a short hallway, with a serious expression on his face, and finally through a door. Dr. Quack flicked a few swiches on the wall and the room was bathed in light. He walked over to a control panel and pushed a few buttons. A portion of the floor opened up and a medical bed layed low to the floor. Next to it a bar about a meter long came out of the floor by the head of the bed. Brian noticed a joint a little over halfway to the top. After the joint was what look liked a black light tube. 'That must be the sensor.' Brian thought. "Lay on the bed." Dr. Quack said from behind the control panel. "I have no idea what you want me to look for though." Brian layed on the bed. "Just set it so after the scan I can look at it myself." Quack pushed a few more buttons on the console. "Are you ready?" Quack asked Brian. Brian nodded his head. Quack budhed a button on his console and the lights in the room went out. The scanner bent at the joint and light up. It emitted a bright dark green light. It started with Brian's head, and slowly moved down his body toward his feet. When it reached his feet 2 minutes later, it backtracked to his head and shut off. The scaning arm went back into the floor, and the room lights came back on. Brian got up and went to the terminal. Quack was sitting in a rolling chair. He pointed to a chair beside him and Brian sat down. "Use the mouse." Quack said while gesturing to the pointing device in front of Brian. Brian layed his hand on the device, and loked at the screen in front of him. On the screen was a perfect 3-d model of his body. Brian clicked and highlighted his lumbar region on his spinal cord. The computer zoomed in on the section. Brian rotated his body so his back was flat aganst the screen. Along his spinal cord, 3 on each side, were 6 dark spots, shaped like circles. The circle in the middle, on the right side of Brian's back , had a dent on the left side, where it connected with his nervous system. "Shit, can you swich to x-ray viewing?" Brian said to Dr. Quack, who reached over and pushed a button. The surface of the implant became visable, along with the crack over it's surface.  
  
Brian stood outside the doctor's, not beliving what had happened. 'It's a regulator.' Brian recalled saying to the doctor, as they carfully studied the rest of Brian's implants to be sure there was no other damage. 'My body functions. The force seemed to think that anyone who was to become a guardian was to have as many weeknesses removed, so what that paticular implant did was to continully charge and release lyphatic fluid with protein complex. It almost eliminated my need for solid food. Now it's broke.' Dr. Quack seemed unconcerned. 'So what?' He had said. 'That's not important. We have a ready supply of nutrition here in the village.' Brian had shook his head at this. 'From the implant, selenium sulfide is leeking into my body. I'm fine now, but slowly, it will kill me, and the implant can't be removed.' Brian sighed. 'I need to talk to Chuck about the robotisizer. It was originally for medical purposes, so...' Brian walked up the path, away from the clinic, and turned right onto the main road. 'Right now I'm hungry. First I'll eat, then I can talk to Charles.  
  
As it turned out, Chuck was sitting in the Kitchen, in the corner, waiting for Tails and Amy. Brian walked up to the table. "Charles, may I have a moment to ask you something?" Chuck looked up at Brian, then gestured to the seat opposite of him. "What do you need, Brian" Charles asked. "I need to know exactly how far can the robotisizer repair internal damage." Charles layed his hands and looked down. He sighed, which came out slightly odd since it sounded mechanical. "You have to understand, the components created by the robotisizer can't co-exist with organic tissue. Before I say any more, I am trusting that this will be kept secret." Brian nodded his head. "Good. Now before you ask 'What about Bunnie, understand this. Even now, even though she dosn't know it, she is being killed by her mechanical limbs. Your just waisting time on your arm. It's all or nothing, and all comes with the sacrafice of your mind...and my soul. Mine is a special case. I saved my energy up from the inside for years, not fighting, and in the end, I needed outside help, and even then I almost didn't free my mind. Why do you want to know now, when I already left the scamatics in the workshop?" Brian layed his head down on the table before answering. "One of my cybernetic implants ruptured and is slowly releasing selenium sulfide into my system. I'm dying." Brian lifted his head up. "And your robotisizer is-...was my last hope..." Chuck leaned forward. "Can't you have Dr. Quack remove them?" Brian shook his head and stood up. "I need to get to work. There has to be a way to reseal the implant. Thank you, Charles." Charles stood up. "Call me Chuck, Uncle Chuck." He offered his hand to Brian, which Brian shook.  
  
Amy and Tails walked into the kitchen just as Brian was leaving. They saw he was carring a bottle of water in his pocket and eating a apple. "Hey, Brian. Where are you going? I thought you didn't need food?" Tails said to Brian as they passed. "I need to get to the lab, I'll explain later. See ya two." Brian walked out the door, heading toward the lab. They walked over to the table Uncle Chuck was sitting at. "What's with Brian?" asked Tails, who was pouring a cup of coffee out of the pot the cook on duty, Antoine, brought over. Amy also questioned Uncle Chuck. "Yeah, he was in a real big hurry to get to the lab. And Uncle Chuck told them.  
  
Brian walked over to Rotor who was putting a new case on Brian's computer. "Rotor, you about done?" Rotor put another screw in and turned around. "Yep, I made scamatic's of all the major circuit junctions and replaced the capacitors." Brian patted him on the shoulder. "Cool. Do you have the blueprints for the robotisizer?" Rotor walked over to the wall and pulled a 12 inch by 12 inch book from a shelf. "Here. Are you starting construction?" Brian shook his head. "I need to find out how this thing works, and see if I can make it better." Rotor chuckled. "God luck. It took the best minds on Mobius 15 years to develop what your looking at right now. "Yeah, and my money says I can make it lean and mean, but not a killing machine." Rotor shook his head. "Well, if you need help, I'll be in the back room. Rotor left Brian sitting by the bench, a note pad out, frantically scribbling.  
  
A few hours later, Rotor came out of the back. He decided that he was leaving early, as everything he had to do was done. He walked over to where Brian was sitting, still writing . "Hey, I'm going to--whoa!" Sitting next to the notebook Brian was writing in was 2 others. When rotor flipped through them, they were all full, every single line. "Find anything interesting?" Rotor asked Brian, his voice dripping with saurcasm. "Yeah, I discovered..." Brian paused to write down some more. "...This is...going to take...forever...and a day to... figure out!" Brian picked up the notepad he was using and slammed it down. He put his hand on the table and dropped his head on top of it. "This fucking thing is more complex that it needs to be." Rotor reached into his jacket and layed his keys on top of Brian's notes. "Lock up when your done and leave the keys in the mailbox. OK? Good luck!" Brian nodded, and continued writing.  
  
Tails walked into the lab about 20 minutes after Rotor left. "Hey Brian, How you doing?" Brian jumped in his seat. "Tails! I didn't here you come in!" Tails walked over to the lab bench and sat down. He picked up a notebook and glanced through it. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. I just wanted to talk to you for a sec." Brian nodded and continued writing. "About what?" Tails sat the notebook back on the pile. "Uncle Chuck told me whats wrong." Brian sighed and sat down his pen. "It's nothing anyone can do anything about. I might as well do what I can to help you guys out before I become too sick from the toxins." Tails pounded his fist on the table. "Stop thinking so negative! There has got to be a way out of this!" Brian just shook his head. "The implant was never meant to need repair or be replaced. It was supposed to be so durable it could last forever...I guess that was wrong." Tails shook his head. "You havn't been here a week and already all the senior Freedom Fighters trust you! They let you bring back our main enemy just because you said he was your brother." Brian raised his head. "How is Ian anyhow?" Tails looked confused. "Who?" Brian shook his head slightly. "Snively, his real name is Ian Floyd. At least it was..." Tails sighed. "I'm sorry. He's still in a coma. The funny thing is, it wasn't caused by you striking him. Dr. Quack said it's being caused by Snive-Ian's brain. Anyway, the doctor said that he should come out of it in a day or two." Brian slowly nodded. "Me and him...We have a lot to talk about..." Brian sat there looking off into the distance. "Brian, It's alright to be afraid, fear in a situation like this is only natural." Brian again nodded his head slowly. "It's not that I'm afraid of dying...It's that I still want to see tomorrow." Tails nodded. "There's nothing wrong with that. It's called survival." Tails stood up. "It's getting late. I'm gonna get going. Later." Tails turned around to walk out the dor but Brian stopped him. "Tails..." Tails turned and looked at the man. "Yeah?" Brian scrached the back of his head. "Be careful. You don't want you or Amy to get hurt. Just be safe." Tails looked shocked. "How did you know about me and Amy? Not even Sally noticed!" Brian smiled. "I have very keen senses. I'll see you tomorrow." Tails noddedn his head. "Good night, Brian." Brian cracked his knuckles and sat back down to write again. This was going to be a long night.  
  
Brian glanced up from his fifth notebook to his watch and saw that it was almost 2 in the morning. He looked down at his notes. Every theory and every idea that was behind robotisization were now in these notebooks that he had spent the night tirelessly writing so that he might find something to cling to, some fragment of a distant hope. But he found none. The only thing he could do was hope that the leak in the power cell didn't get any worse. If it didn't, it was likely he could live out at least 2 more years before he became too sick to work, and then die in 3. Not much, but something... "Damn it all to hell...It's useless." Brian grumbled to himself, even as he collected his notebooks and walked over to the drafting board to begin working on his design for the revised robotisizer. He knew it was going to be a long night and he wanted some coffee. He checked Rotor's office, but the door was locked. 'Damn, it looks like I'll have to go to the kitchen. He grabbed the keys off the table and walked out of the lab, closing and locking the door behind him.  
  
Brian walked into the kitchen and looked around. No one was there so he just grabbed a coffee pot off the front table and went to the instant machine in the corner. Brian put the pot unger the spout and held the button down. A stream of black liquid came out of the machine and began to fill the pot. Brian sighed and knocked his head on the surface of the machine lightly. A minute later he drew his head back and looked at the pot. 'Almost full, god enough...' Brian thought as he turned around holding the pot handle. He walked out the door, unaware that someone was watching him.  
  
Brian stood in front of the drafting board, a prototype drawing of the main control board for the robotisizer in front of him. He placed a hand on his forehead and sighed. This was taking a lifetime of study and research and putting it into a couple of weeks, maybe less. "But it's happining," Brian said to himself. "It's really happening..." Brian put down the pencil and ruler he had been drawing and writing with. "Fuck this, I'm going to sleep." Brian said. He picked up the keys Rotor had given him and shut off the lab's lights. He turned and walked out the door, locking it behind him. He began heading toward his hut. 'With the regularlator shut down, I might actully sleep normal... I've already begun to get my normal appitite back.' Brian thought as he walked in his front door. He shuffled toward his room, kicking off his shoes on the way. He sat down on his bed and took off his socks. He layed back and pulled the covers over his body. He slowly, but steadly, fell into Dream-State sleep for the first time in what seemed like a million years, although his dreams were only a couple of light-years and a few thousand years away. 


	14. Overhaul

The Robotnik Complex  
Chapter 14  
  
Author's Note: So, you don't want me to kill my character, hmmmmm...? I bet you want to know what I'm thinking, don't you? Well, be prepared to kill me, because the next 10 chapters will be full of twist, loyality, swearing of allagence, death, and betrayal. So get ready, fasten your seatbelts, and hold on for what I hope to be the best writing so far in my young life.  
  
With hope,  
Brian Bloomfield  
  
"...up, Brian!" was the first thing Brian heard as he began to open his eyes. "What..." Brian said groggly, half-asleep. Rotor, Chuck, and Tails were all standing by his bed. The clock on the wall read 11:03 AM. Brian rolled over so his face was toward the ceiling. "Come on, Come on! We've got work to do!" Brian slowly sat up, barely staying awake. "Coffee." He said slowly, standing up, wrapping the sheet around him, and truging toward the kitchen, the others in tow. He grabbed what was left of yesterday's coffee and poured it into a cup, chugging it down. "What the fucks this 'bout? I'm tired-" Chuck interrupted. "You should be! I mean, my god, if you keep it up, you might actully have a shot at this thing!" Chuck's voice was filled with enthusiam. Brian just stared at them blankly. "What the hell are you talking about?" Brian said while stifling a yawn. "The robotisizer! I should have noticed last night when I glanced at your notebook!" Tails said to Brian, in a voice of someone who is on the verge of laughing out of sheer joy. "Hold up a sec, I need cafination. Then we can talk." Brian reached over and pulled the used filter out of the coffee machine and loaded a new one. He pushed the power button and the coffee maker came alive. Brian yawned as he began to wake. "OK, now I need a shower and a fresh change of clothing. I don't smell too good. Uncle Chuck groaned in frustration. "We have to get to work now! Can't this wait?" Brian shot a look at the man that said 'Hey, I just overhauled your invention's main component in under 24 hours-Back off..." Brian sighed. "Those notebooks and the prototype of the main control board aren't going anywhere as far as I know. Can this wait? Yes, it can. But I really don't see any reason to drag myself over there after only a couple hours sleep." Chuck sighed. He realized he wasn't going to win. "Ok, but can you be there in a hour?" Chuck asked Brian as Brian poured himself a cup of coffee from the fresh pot. "I'll be there in 30 minutes. Want some coffee?" They all politely declined, saying they wanted to go back to the workshop. Brian finished his cup of coffee and walked over to the closet he had put his stuff in. He realized he only had a few pairs of clothes and that he needed to go light on these until he could get more. He pulled the cover off of the safe and dug around, after a minute producing a black pair of jeans, a black and green swirled T-shirt, and a pair of boxers and socks. He put the lid back in place and walked down to the bathrom, where he took his shower. He stepped out of the shower, shaved, dried himself, and dressed. 20 minutes after chuck left, he walked out of his hut and headed toward Rotor's workshop.  
A minute later he walked in and saw Tails and Rotor hutched over one of the notebooks he had written last night, and Uncle Chuck was in the corner supply closet looking for something. He stepped over to the table and tapped Rotor on the shoulder. "Ahhh! Oh! Hello Brian, I didn't hear you come in." Rotor looked over to the wall and saw that he had arriver well under a hour. "Ok, now that your here, can you explain some of these system changes you made. Some things you talked about were unclear about how they effected the entire system or what they even did." Brian nodded his head, picking up the first notebook. "Ok, but we better start at the begining..."  
An hour later they were getting nowhere. Uncle Chuck and Brian could not agree on one point of the changes he had made to the design. "OK, both of you hold up!" Tails yelled. They stopped arguing and turned to look at Tails. "You two have been here for a hour and have made no progress! An hour! Now, would both of you stop arguing and get some real progress made?" Brian sighed. He went to speak, but Chuck beat him to it. "Brian, this is your plan, I'll help you try. I'm sorry." Brian shook his head. "That's not needed. I'm just as much at blame here than you are, perhaps more, I'm sorry. Now, let's get back to-" "Brian! Brian! Are you in here?!" Brian turned around and spotted Amy coming into the lab. "What?" Brian asked, curious as to why Amy was looking for him. "There you are! Quack sent me to find you. Snively's awake!"  
Brian, followed by Amy and Tails, walked into the Knothole Medical Center. Brian went to Dr. Quack's door, and knocked lightly. "Come in." Signaled the doctor. Brian walked in. "Sit." Brian did. "How is he?" Quack stood up and went over to the light box on the wall of his office. He flipped it on and Brian sat what appeared to be a outline of Ian's head. "There seems to be some sort of microchip embedded into his brain. It was transmitting a signal throughout Ian's brain, keeping him asleep, but I found the carrier signal and jammed it. He appears fully cognative. We did have to restrain him. He kept trying to escape. We also did a blod protosample, and found traces of nano-machinery" Brian slowly nodded. "That's almost proves he came to this planet in cryo-sleep. Your injected with a small amount of nanos to repair cells when you wake up. May I see him?" Dr. Quack nodded and led the way out of his office. Tails and Amy were sitting in the waiting room. They started to get up but Brian stopped them with a wave of his hand. "I have to do this alone." Tails nodded and sat back down, next to Amy. Brian followed the doctor through a set of double doors and walked down a short hallway. Quack stopped at the last door and looked at Brian. "This is it." Brian took a deep breath, grasp the cool door handle with his hand, and opened the door.  
Brian saw Ian laying on his bed with his eyes closed. "Just leave, I have nothing to say doctor." Ian said with a air of finality in his voice. 'What's with the accent?' Brian wondered. "Hello, Ian." Brian said, still standing atn the doorway. Ian's eyes shot open a second later in recognition. "What kind of trick is this, you bastards!" Ian screamed in rage, while trying to thrash away from the restraints that held him tightly. "It's no trick, Ian. It's your brother, Brian." Ian just shook his head violent from side to side, refusing to believe. "Ian, our parents died when we were both children, we were split up and put into foster care, out home planet is earth! Listen to me!" Ian had tired of shaking his head. "They how did you get here, brother?" Ian said, soaking the last word in contempt. "All space-bound craft were banned from production and launching! Once our fate was sealed, even then did they didn't lift the restriction! The only way I got here...!" Brian looked at Ian in curosity. "How did you get here?" Ian shook his head. "I won't tell you!" Brian felt a slight chill over his eyes as they turned bright lime green. He had mentally turned on his WatchCom "There are many things you don't know about me, Ian." Ian's mouth dropped open. "You became a guardian?" Brian nodded his head. "You son of a BITCH!" Ian yelled as he lunged forward, with all his strength. The restraints held him back, but he still fought. "You dirty bastard! I'll kill you!!!" Ian continued to yell at the top of his lungs. Dr. Quack rushed in with a hypogun. He reached into his pocket and drew out a bottle marked SEDATIVE, 5 doses-50 cc/dose. Quack shoved the gun aganst Ian's arm and pulled the trigger. Ian continued to struggle aganst the restraint's for a second, then went limp. Quack turned around to look at Brian. "What in the blue FUCK was that about?" Quack asked as he put the Hypogun back into his lab coat. Brian just shook his head. "I don't know, Doc." Brian put his head into his hand. "...I really don't know..." Brian looked up toward Ian. "I know how to find out, though." Brian shut his eyes, letting himself drift. Finally, he heard a voice. "System Ready." Brian opened his eyes and looked around himself. He was sitting in a leather chair in the middle of a workstation. "I almost forgot I could do this..." He leaned back and looked around. He was in the middle of what seemed to be thousands of file drawers. He had let the WatchCom take over his body's functions and was now in a Virtual interface with the WatchCom. Everything he had ever seen, heard, smelled, tased, or touched was here, waiting for him to access. He cracked his knuckles- here he had both arms- and leaned forward to a keyboard. He began to type. "SEARCH:EXTERNAL:INTERFACE:ALL-FREQ.:RUN." Brian pressed the enter key and watched as the numbers began to scroll down the screen, and sighed. He knew that this would take a while.  
Dr. Quack was snapping his fingers in front of Brian's face, but he would not come out of the trance like state he had been in for about 3 minutes now. It creeped the doctor out, as he had never seen anything like this. Brian appeared responsive, but was not responding to any outside stimuli other that momentum, gravity, anything that could send him toppling over. 'This is weird...' Quack thought to himself. He began to tap Brian on the face lightly, trying to bring him out of whatever state he was in.  
Beeeeep! Brian sat up and looked at the screen. It had found what he had told it to, a computer with a transmitter so a human could hook it's nervous system up to it; in short, a cybernetic implant other than his. He looked at the screen, reading, for a moment before nodding his head. Exactly what he thought. He had found the reason Ian hated him so much, he was his opposite, a prep. And Brian knew from experience that Ian would not stop until Brian was dead. That's the way they had been brainwashed. 'Well, it really wasn't his fault. They never tell anyone what will happen to their mind once they join the-...' Beep! Beep! Beep! Brian looked at the screen again. 'The computer must have found something interesting about Ian's implants. He looked at the screen and gasped. In one column was all the information he had gathered in his internet battle with the Creation. In the other column was Ian's information. In each place for estimated physical information, the columns matched, but in the cybernetic part of the chart, they didn't even come close. Brian leaned back and sighed. "Well, I better go ask him." Brian leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes. A few seconds later he faded from view.  
Brian snapped open his eyes, just in time to see Rotor wind up for a slap. Brian reached out to grab his hand. "Hold!" Rotor jumped in suprise, as did Tails, Sonic, and Dr. Quack, who were in the room. Brian looked around. "What are you all doing here?" Sonic spoke up. "Dr. Quack told us you went into some kinda trance." Brian nodded his head. "I'm sorry for worrying you, I just had to check something out." Sonic nodded his head, waited for a few seconds, then asked a question. "And?" Brian stood up and walked over to the side of Ian's bed. Finally he looked up at them. "I don't know what to think. We need him awake so I can ask him a few questions. "The drug I used on him wears off in a few hours, you can question him then." Brian nodded his head. "Very well. I'll come back then. I'm going back to the lab." Brian turned and walked out the door, leaving the others standing there.  
Brian was, a few minutes later, standing in front of the drawing board in Rotor's lab. He loked at the almost completed re-designed Robotisizer. He had left most of the systems intact, as few of them actually had flaws. But the systems that did... 'It's a wonder this thing didn't blow every fuse from here to infinity!' Brian was thinking to himself. 'It's really not bad...just needed a little tweeking here and there.' Brian started smiling. It was all simple, he was begining to think. When the original design was drafted, the designers tweeked the system for speed, not safety. To save time during the intial power-up, what Chuck did was have the computer switch from the regular circuits to the power-up circuits, which ran through no surge protectors, transformers, nothing. 'He shocked the system, even though the circuit pathways were switched back to the normal pathways, the damage was done. This thing is damn sensitive...' Brian looked down and sighed. 'All it took was for a few of the focusing chips and the neural-positronic converter to get knocked around and bingo, you got a mindless slave factory.' Brian turned around as Rotor and Charles entered the lab. "I'm done, and I must say..." He looked directly at Chuck. "...there is nothing wrong with the main design, you or someone working close to you were just careless." Chuck looked toward Brian with confusion. "What do you mean?" Brian pointed to the real problem with the Robotisizer, the Neural-Positronic Converter. "When a subject was Robotisized, one of the first parts to change, unlessed programmed not to, was the brain. The thing was, for concious thought, regular processors with on-off swiches were not enough. A positronic network changed all that. Instead of just on-off you can have many different selections per switch. Gather enough of these switches together and you have real thought, a positronic brain is born. When this was fryed by the start-up power surge, to Robotisizer got confused. So, it just made regular digital switches. The person became a robotic slave in almost a instant, and it could have been prevented." Brian looked at Chuck, waiting for a answer. "But what about the surge protectors I put in?" Brian just shook his head. They were overrode by the start-up circuits." Chuck shok his head furiously. "No! There was never enough power present! The robotisizer is designed to run on 115 Volts at 50 Amps!" Brian shook his head. "You have capacitors in the system to hold a charge along the way. There was a bleed-off as they were charged. By the time power reached the Converter, it was enough to kill it. You just didn't think of the effect the capacitors would have on the system. A standard Apollo 13 problem." Chuck looked at him in confusion. "What?" Brian chuckled. "When my planet was still exploring space, there was a spacecraft designed to land on our moon. there were 17 in all, all called Apollo. Well, in these spacecraft was a very limited space for fuel, water, oxygen, etc. Well, the oxygen was compressed and put into deep-freeze tanks. These tanks have to be stirred and heated or the oxygen won't flow through the lines. Halfway to the moon, during a stir and for no apparent reason, tank two blew up, crippling the main spacecraft by destroying it's fuel cells, it's other tank of oxygen, and the main engine. The three men survived by using the mon lander as a lifeboat. This thing was designed to carry 2 men for 4 days. It ended up carrying 3 men for 5 days. There were problems, but all 3 got home safe. When they tried to figure out what went wrong, they had to guess. The Main craft was dumped in space, along with the lander. They did eventully figure out what happened though. The Service module, with all the oxygen and fuel, was designed to run on 28 amps. When it was powered up before launch, it was powered at 56 amps. When they stirred the tank before launch, they turned on the heater. Well, the thermostat got fused and the heated didn't shut off when it should have. It raised the tempature of the tank to over 1,000 degrees. When that happened, it cooked most of the systems and halfway to the moon, the tank shorted out and exploded. A simple problem, but when overlooked, turned deadly." Brian sat down and sighed. "Either of these situations were anyone's fault. They both were just accidents." Chuck looked up to Brian. "No one is ever at fault, things just happen." Both Brian and Rotor, who had been sitting silently, nodded their heads. "Brian," Chuck said. "Are you ready to build this?" Brian nodded his head. Chuck smiled the best he could with his robotisized body. "Then let's do it." 


	15. Answers

The Robotnik Complex  
  
Chapter 15  
  
Location: Robotropolis Control Room  
  
Robotnik sat in his chair in the middle of the dark, forboding control room. 'With Snively gone, I will need a new subordainate. I don't want to reactivate my failure, but it seems fate has left me no choice.' He pushed himself out of the black chair he sat in, and walked out of the automatic door into the slightly damp corridor beyond. He reached the lift at the end of the hall and entered. He pulled a memory stick out of his pocket and slid it into place on the lift's control panel. "Dr. Robotnik, ID accepted. Name location." The computer stated to the Doctor in a choppy monotone. "Level B-15, Special Projects." The lift door's closed and the elevator began it's long, slow decent into the deepest part of the city. No one knew that this place existed, except Robotnik himself. Every once in a while, he would have a idea he considered grand and so magnificant that he immeadieatly sprang into action to complete it as fast as posisable, often resulting in failure. When this happened, he usually just scrapped the idea. But, once in a great while, a idea would keep coming back to him, so strongly that he decided to work on it in secret until he was convinced that it was as near perfection as it could be. 'Down here,' He thought to himself, as the lift continued to desend, 'This is where Death Egg was born... and Proteus...' Of coarse, both of those projects were so huge that he needed help in the end from Snively, but even then Robotnik never told Snively where the idea had come from. 'Death Egg may have been a failure, but Proteus will succeed!' he thought as the lift shuddered to a halt. He removed his card and the door opened. He walked across the room, which was about 150 feet by 100 feet, to a tank suspended in the middle of the room. Inside, suspended in liquid, was a robot. All together he was about 4 1/2 feet tall, a dark bluish hue, and wore metallic red shoes. "And you, my son..." Robotnik spoke to the object in the tank. "...You will help me reach my goal. Time to awake, Metal..." He inserted his memory card into a slot at the bottom of the tank. A small control panel opened up and came to life. It was very simple, only two buttons and a positronic signal readout, but served it's purpose. Robotnik reached down and pushed a button marked activate. The lighting in the tank activated as the hum of machinery spread to the air around Robotnik. The creature jerked a little, and the positronic readout, which had been a flatline before, spiked for a few seconds before settling into a pattern. The robot opened it's eyes and stared at the overlander in front of him. "Master..." The robot said, it's low, smooth tenor voice uneffected by the liquid it was set in. Robotnik chuckled darkly. "Welcome home, Sonic..."  
  
Location: Rotor's Lab: Supply Closet  
  
Brian looked at the list he was holding in his hand and then back to the shelves that surrounded him. He did this a few times, then dropped his hand to his side and shook his head. 'This place is a mess.' Brian thought to himself. On the shelfs that were all around him, each was crammed full of wires, circuit boards, logic probes, and things Brian couldn't even identify because of the dust. 'He wasn't kidding when he said I might have a little trouble...' Brian looked at the list. Over the last hour, he had written every part the Robotisizer needed down on the sheets of notebook paper he held in his hand. 1,784 items in all, he knew he was going to have problems with the list, but not this much trouble... He sighed again and decided to go and get a bite to eat, as he hadn't ate breakfast yet.. He would start on his own personal hell when he returned. He turned and left the dust-filled closet. He grabbed a notebook with the revised Robotisizer in it and walked out of the lab. He closed the front door and headed toward the kitchen. He walked in and was suprised to find St. John sitting in a corner. Brian turned toward the counter and placed on a tray a Kiwi, a cup of black coffee, and 2 slices of dry toast. He took his tray to the opposite side of the cafeteria and sat down. Brian began to eat and St. John sipped his coffee and read a book he had. Brian sensed St. John look up at Brian from time to time, but did nothing. 'Let him move first.' Brian thought to himself. He finished his breakfast, closed the notebook, stood up, and walked out of the room. St. John sat there for a few minutes, pretending to read. After St. John was sure that he was alone, he reached under the table and pulled out a small palm computer. The display was flashing: 102.3571548623 Gigahertz- Cybernetic Operation Frequency Verified! Operation Complete! St. John looked at the display and smiled.  
  
St. John walked out of the building with the computer in his pocket. He walked about the village for a few minutes, then slipped into the Great Forest. He walked a long distance away from Knothole until he was sure he wasn't being followed, than sat down on a tree stump nearby. He pulled the device out of his pocket and turned it back on. He selected "PHONE" from the main menu and waited as it contacted the Robotropolis computers. After a small beep, Robotnik's face appeared on the display. "Do you have what I asked for?" Dr. Robotnik asked with barely contained excitement. "Do you have my...item?" Asked St. John. Robotnik smiled at this. "Stand up." St. John complied. The tree stump slid open, reveling 1/4 pound of very potent marijuana laced with PCP. "So, do you have the frequency?" Asked Robotnik over the still open comlink. "Yes. Transmiting now, sir." St. John pushed a button on the device he was holding. The screen turned blue, then flashed: TRANSFER COMPLETE! "Very good! I'll be in touch. Ta-Ta!" Robotnik cut off the link. St. John shut off the palm, retrieved his 'item', and headed back to Knothole. He headed directly to his hut and stayed there the rest of the day.  
  
Metal Sonic walked around the Robotropolis control room checking equitment and reseting various systems. He turned toward his creator, whom he was having a conversation with. "So, you took me offline for repairs due to damage sustained during the final asssalt on the death-egg by Sonic." Robotnik nodded his head. "Now I need you for a new purpose: tending to all computer systems for 16 hours a day. The rest of the time you can spend however you wish. I suggest you spend your free time learning and ajusting your AI program. Metal nodded. "I concur." Robotnik stood. "But first, I need you to download all information about 'Project: Proteus' into your neural net. Metal closed his eyes as he accessed the city-wide computer network. He opened his eyes a second later. "Proteus is a attempt at mass- robotisization. Your problem is you can't get the tubes to work on so little computer power." Robotnik nodded his head. "I can't make it work. The focusing unit on one tube takes the capability of one entire supercomputer. I just can't build 300 supercomputers. The 5 for the city network took 3 years to build. The one's the Proteus is using now are the 5 backups. Therefore, for 8 of the 16 hours you work, you will work on Proteus. Understood? Than go and start now." Metal nodded his head. "It is a honor to work on this project. I will serve you well." Metal turned and left the room, heading for Proteus.  
  
"Item #791, Power Transducer." Tails read off the checklist he held in his hands. After Brian had gotten back, Tails and Amy stopped by and asked if there was any way they could help. Brian asked them if they would mind helping him collect all the parts. They said that they wouldn't mind at all, so for the last 2 hours they had been collecting the parts they needed. "Power Transducer." Brian said as he handed the part to Amy, who sat it on the ground and turned back to recieve another part. Dr. Quack walked into the lab and stopped at the entrance to the closet. "Brian, I thought you should know that Ian is awake. He is considerably calmer." Brian came out of the closet. "Take me to him."  
  
Brian walked into the hallway right outsode of Ian's room. Dr. Quack stopped him. He put a little baggie into Brian's hand. "What's this?" Brian asked the doctor. "I think it's a control chip. It was imbedded into his brain. From what I gathered, it changed the brainwave pattern to make the subject more aggressive and if you have the transciever, open to your suggestion." Brian paused in walking. "You mean like mind control?". Dr. Quack nodded his head. "Bingo.". Brian handed the chip back to the doctor. "That could explain a lot." Brian walked in to the room, signaling Quack to wait outside. Ian looked up as Brian walked in. Brian closed the door and stopped. They staired at each other from acrost the room, sizing each other up. Finally Ian cleared his throat. "Hello." Brian stepped closer. "Hello." Ian sat up. "What happened to your arm?" Brian looked down to the stump on his left arm. "I crash landed. It was severed in the landing." Ian nodded. "Oh." Brian walked over to the side of Ian's bed. He sat in a chair and looked at Ian. "I need to know how you got here, Ian." Ian layed back. "OK, I'll tell you." Ian took a deep breath. "When I was 10 I was kidnapped by the Academy. My last cognitive memory was me sitting in what appeared to be a Virtual Reality couch. The rest of my life from that point until now seems like a dream to me. I was recruted into their forces and assigned a job in a "recruiting station", the place where they brainwash people into joining their forces. When I was 13 I was assigned to a different project called 'Exodus-Genesis Retrival'. I was just a data entry operator, but I knew that the project was Top-Secret." Brian nodded. "Your talking about the Creation?" Ian nodded. "Yes, that was your name for it. After it was completed when I was 16, I was assigned to be it's partner since I was the most efficient operator. Anyway, after the internet incident occured, the creation, codenamed ZACH it a intersteller spacecraft and we flew here, I was in cryogenic sleep the entire time, but since he dosn't age, it wasn't necessary for him to sleep. On our way here we dropped graitational buoys for the others at the academy to follow." Brian interupped. "The academy was disbanded shortly after ZACH went underground, so there was no one to follow." Ian nodded. "It was never thought that anyone else would follow since the government banned private and public spaceflight." Brian chuckled. "I was the only one with the balls to fly through the satalite defense network, besides you." Ian shook his head. "We just armored the ship really well and hoped for the best. You actully piloted your ship through the laser nets?" Brian sat back and nodded. "It was a bitch, believe me, but I made it. Anyway, continue with your story." Ian took a drink of water. "We landed here about 12 years ago and befriended the 'overlanders' or 'terrans'. A year later ZACH, now calling himself Julian, betrayed the overlanders, nearly getting us killed. We were found and taken in by a patrol of the Mobian Infantry. Julian manipulated King Acorn into trusting him and gained, not only the title Warlord, but a slight weight problem. He then proceeded to assemble a giant underground electronic army. With the help of this army, he took over their capital and mechanized it 10 years ago, changing his name one last time to Robotnik and naming me Snively. It's been that way ever sense. Their have been many attempts to overthrow his rule, but none were successful. Now that I look back on all the evil I have done, I find myself full of loathing for myself. But soon I will pay for my evil deeds." Brian looked at him. "What do you mean?" Ian looked down. "I have cancer. I've been in radiation therpy for the last 6 months. I have 4 months to live. Robotnik wanted to Robotisize me and get it over with, but I wanted to put it off for as long as posisable." Brian stared in disbelieve at Ian. Thoughts raced through his mind. 'Cancer? Why? I am billions, trillions of miles from Earth and I find something I can relate too, then I find out he has cancer.' A knock sounded at the door. Brian stood up and opened it. Sonic was outside. "Sally wants to talk to you." Brian nodded. "I'll be right there." Sonic shook his head. "No, she needs to talk to you now." Brian nodded and walked over to Ian's bedside and shook his hand. "I'll see you later. We must talk again." Ian nodded. "That would be nice Brian." Brian turned away and walked out of the room quickly, but not so quick Sonic could not see the tears in Brian's eyes.  
  
"So, you getting here was no accident." Brian nodded. "I wasn't ment to follow them, but my ship was brought here by their buoys." Sally nodded. "So, you know how to fight Robotnik." Brian stood up and rapidly shook his head. "Sally, do not be mistaken, according to the information from Ian's implant and what he has told me, Robotnik and what I fought on Earth are two very different people." Sally nodded her head. "Ok, I understand, but will you help us?" Brian sat back down in the chair in front of Sally's desk. "According to the laws of my people, your history has been interupted on purpose. I am required to restore your history to it's natural course. I will help you in this war." Sally nodded her head. "Very good. Your now a citizen of Knothole. You can return to the lab if you wish." Brian stood up. "Thank you, princess." He opened the door and walked out of the office, than out of the house, and began to walk toward the lab.  
  
A few seconds later Sonic walked into the hut and into Sally's office. He had been lisening over a comlink from another room in the hut. Sally looked up. "And?" She said to the hedgehog, waiting a response. "He told you everything Ian told him, except one thing. Ian has cancer. He has 4 months to live." Sally stared down at her oak desk. Suddenly she was filled with hate, sorrow, confusion, and anger. Hate for all the evil Snively had done. Sorrow, for now Brian and Ian had to deal with losing each other over again, this time for good. Confusion, because she didn't know if she should think of Snively and Ian as seperate people or as one person. Anger at Robotnik, for causing all of this. Sally stood. "I don't know what to do Sonic. Do we charge Brian's brother, who's dying of cancer anyway, with war crimes that were not under his control, or do we just let him go free?" Sonic walked over to the windowsill and stood by Sally. He put a comforting arm around her shoulders. "I don't know Sally, I just don't know."  
  
When Brian walked into the lab, he was suprised. Rotor, Tails, Amy, Bunnie, and Antoine were sorting parts into piles and finding tools.They all looked up as he entered. "What's this all about?" He asked the group. "We figured you could use the help, sugah." Bunnie drawled as she sat a box of processors on top of a pile near her. "Without help this could take weeks to build, and from what I hear, time is running short." Brian frowned, remembering the cell in his back. "Thank you, your right. I do need help." Rotor handed each of them a tool belt. "Than let's get started."  
  
*****  
  
They worked hard all through the night, stopping only to drink coffee or to use the bathroom. Rotor and Tails sodered circuitboards, assembled each of the mini-computers that would handle independent opreations while Brian and Antoine started writing the software that the spacecraft computer and the mini-computers would need for robotisization. It was 8 at night when they started writing for the first mini-computer, and it was 4:30 in the morning when they finished on the 8th and final mini-computer. They then started on the main computer. Amy and Bunnie tested all of the circuits for shorts and installed them in the robotisizer base, along with the hard drives and the mini-computers. It was 6:30 in the morning when Brian told them to head on home, and thank you for the help. They all went home, and they thought he did too. But after they were out of sight, he went back into the lab and started working of the main computers software again. At 7:30 he was finished. Except for the upper section, which only contained the field generator and bioelectrical sensors, and the transparent aluminum shielding. The robotisizer was complete. He walked into his hut and dropped onto the couch, sleeping almost instantly.  
  
Sally sat up as the comlink alarm went off. She sat up, turned the screen on and began reading the teansmission. As soon as she was finished, she swiched off the monitor and called Sonic's hut. It rang a few times before Sonic, still half asleep since he normally didn't wake until 8:00. "What is it?" Sally looked grim. "We just recieved a distress signal from Knuckles. Angel Island is under attack." 


	16. THe Calm Before the Storm Part Two

The Robotnik Complex  
  
Chapter 16  
  
Location: Knothole War Room  
  
Brian slipped into a chair as the rest of the senior freedom fighters entered the room. Sally went to the head of the table and sat down. She started speaking almost right away. "Let me be blunt: Robotnik is currently occuping the surface of Angel Island and Knuckles and the Chaotixs are locked into a emergency evacuation point under the island. If they launch in a glider, Robotnik will destroy it. They have called and asked for our help, and, with the War Counsel's permission, I have every intention of giving it to them. Any questions before final voting?" Tails spoke. "I believe that it would be in our best interest if Brian helped us with this mission, that is why I asked him to attend this emergency session, to obtain permission from the war counsel to ask for his assistance." Sally looked toward Brian with a look of question. "How much longer do you think it would take you to get the Robotisizer working?" Brian leaned forward. "If I had the help I did yesterday, 7 hours to have the machine complete and put together. That is including a 2-hour static test, of course." Sally nodded. "Get to work now. Do you all agree that armed action is necessary?" All members of the table nodded their heads. "Good. The first assult wave will lift off in 1-hour and will consist of hut groups A through D, the second wave will lift off in 13 hours and consists of hut groups E through I. You all have until the separate launch times to prepair your troops. Go, now." Everyone at the table stood and walked out of the room.  
  
Brian walked quickly around the lab making sure that everything was operating. It had been 6 hours since the emergency meeting and he, Chuck, Tails, Amy, Bunnie, Rotor, and Antoine were checking and rechecking every component. The good news was that the static test was almost complete. A computer in the corner of the lab beeped and ALERT flashed across the screen. "Um, Brian? I am thinking this is not good." Antoine said from a place by the lower robotisizer platform, checking connections. Brian walked over to the console and typed in a review command. Several rows of computer language scrolled down the screen until he hit break and highlighted a line that said IF CHECKSUM 435741 THEN OUTPUT CONSOLE 2 PRINT "ALERT". Brian pulled up a command window and typed IDENTIFY "CHECKSUM 435741". The computer responded CHECKSUM 435741=END PROGRAM "STATICTEST1". Brian commanded VERIFY CHECKSUM 435741. Another alert flashed on the screen and the computer stated CHECKSUM VERIFIED. "The static test is complete." Brian said to everyone in the room. "We can proceed." Rotor pushed a button on the console he was operating. The glass tube slide up and locked into position above the lower platform. Brian walked over to the main console. He took a disk marked "Brian Upgrade 1" and inserted it into the computer. He typed "ACCESS A DRIVE; PASSWORD PROTEUS". The computer processed for a moment and read the commands on the disk. "Attention," a female voice called out from a corner console. "Guardian Brian Floyd Repair and Upgrade Mode 1 will initiate in 1 minute. Tube will lock in 50 seconds. Mark". The timers appeared on the main console for 50 seconds and one minute and activated. Tails, Antoine, Bunnie, and Rotor took their places at the four monitoring consoles while Uncle Chuck went to the main console and waited. Amy stood nervously off to one side. "Brian, you know what to do. It's in the computers hands now. Good luck." Chuck said and continued to read the magnetic energy readouts from the main wave generator in the upper robotisizer. Brian pulled off his shirt and his pants quickly. He pulled off his socks and his boxers and entered the Robotisizer, standing there completely naked, except for the WatchCom on his right wrist. "30 seconds" the computer's voice read off.  
  
Sally was sitting in a hypersonic shuttle with thirty other people, en route to the floating island. The ship she sat in was one of the 10 that had been sent with her to the floating island, some carrying weapons, some carrying supplies, some carrying people. She plugged Nicole into a Dataport and hit the Recieve key. All the data from the Robotisizer computer was in front her on the seat screen, along with a live camera feed of the robotisizer tube. Chuck promised her that he would beep her when the time had come. She wanted to know if anything went wrong. Sonic was sitting next to her watching eagerly. He was just as nervous as her. "Princess!" the pilot called back on the private channel. "We have Angel Island in sight! We are slowing to sub sonic and actiating radar cloak. ETA: 20 minutes.  
  
Brian heard the the slow hum as the particle accelarator above his head came to life and began to charge. The glass tube slid shut and locked. "10 seconds." the computer stated. Brian looked above his head as small jets sprayed out a small amount of inhalable neurodepressor. It allowed the process of robotisization to be a painless one. He saw as the harmonic wave began to generate just below the emmision plate. It was a sunfire yellow mixed with a neon green. It seemed to flow around the top of the tube. "Robotisization wave at 100%. 5...4...3...2...1". Brian took a deep breath. "Active" was the last thing Brian heard before the world around him suddenly exploded. For a brief moment the wave completely surrounded him, then the computer directed the beam at his two shoulders and narrowed the beam. Brian felt a odd tingling sensation begin at the ends of his collerbones and begin to move down towards the ends of his arms. The left beam slowed down because it had to build all new components, but the right kept going at the same speed. The right beam ran into the WatchCom, destroying it and rebuilding it into the new circuitry in the left arm. The beams completed the arms and refocused on Brian's lower back. "Stage 2: Internal cybernetic repair. Active." Brian stood as still as he could, not wanting the computer to screw this part up. The beam shut off and the particle accelerator shut down. "Process complete." the female stated. The tube slid open. Fog from the change of tempature rolled out of the tube. Brian heard a voice. "Are you all right?". 'That must be Uncle Chuck..." Brian thought. " I'm fine, just a little disoriented. He bent over in the fog and picked up his boxers and put them on, then his pants. He stepped out of the fog and up to the main console. Chucked popped open a small access door on Brian's right arm with red and black plug ports inside. Chuck plugged the arm into the console and hit a few keys on the keyboard. RIGHT ARM VERIFIED AND SECURED; OPS CODE: 6549781327ABGFUJD0001.  
  
"What's that?" Brian asked, more than a little curious on how the arm worked. Chuck unplugged the arm and walked over to the left arm where a identical access port was opened and plugged in. He repeated the process. LEFT ARM VERIFIED AND SECURED; OPS CODE: 1575954672AYDUWOC0002. "I'm checking that the circuitry of the arms was processed correctly. The code is a operational code. Without a lock on the arms, you can be operated by remote, your arms anyway. The code is never used again so it's random. If anyone ever wanted to crack the code and access the arms servo programs by remote, it would take them at least 10 years on a supercomputer." Brian nodded. He began to inspect his new arms. Since the muscles in his shoulders were replaced by motors, the arm appeared as light as the previous arm, although it was 12 times heavier. The arms were proportional to his body size. The shell of both arms was made out of an almost indestructable adimantium/titanium alloy, and were painted a metallic silver, outlined with black trim. Brian mentally commanded the arms to open it's storage area. A small piece of the outer adimantium shell popped out about an inch, controlled by a small gravity emmitter, and slid over, reveling a small storage area. "Cool!" Tails said, watching all this with a mechanical interest. "It's designed to hold a small amount of explosive." Brian said, commanding the door shut. He thought again and a small panel opened up to show a microphone and a small screen. "Onboard computer for communication and calculations." He closed the panel. "And..." Brian thought again and a small watch sized door opened up by his left wrist. "WatchCom Advanced." He closed the panel, picked up his shirt and put it on. He walked over to the corner of the lab and picked up his black leather jacket. "Let's get ready. I believe we have an appointment." Brian turned and began to walk out. "Brian, we don't lift off for another 7 hours!" Rotor called out. Brian turned around and faced Rotor. "I plan on having a shower and lunch before we leave. I also have nothing ready to take with me. I need to get my gun cleaned and loaded, along with something else I think might help us."  
  
"What? A bomb?" Rotor asked. "No, but if i'm right, it will make Robotnik run for his life back to his little egg." Brian turned and started to walk out again. "Brian, where are you going now if I need to find you?" Chuck called after him. Brian called his response over his shoulder and kept walking.  
  
"I'm going to go see Ian..."  
  
****  
  
Sally unplugged Nicole and powered her down. Sonic leaned back in his seat and released a heavy sigh. "Thank god, it worked..." Sally layed back and shut her eyes. "Yes, it did." She sat up and turned to Sonic. "Sonic, this is crazy! We are trusting one of our most valuble secrets to a guy we have known less than a week! What are we doing Sonic?" Sonic looked at her. "Maybe we've become desperate. Maybe we have been fighting the war for so long that we would do anything to change our chances of winning, for better or for worse.  
  
*****  
  
Brian walked down the hall of the closed hospital. Everyone but one nurse had gone with the first wave for medical assistance, and Brian had already told her he might stop by. He walked by her desk, nodding at her. She waved at him and smiled. He turned into a dark hall and stopped at the last door in the hall. He stepped in and Ian was reading a book the nurse had provided. "Hello Brian," Ian said. "Let's cut to the chase. Do you want to redeem yourself in the eyes of Knothole, Sally, Sonic, and all the others you have had a part in harming for all those years, without your will? Do you want to lay back and die or do you want to go out swinging at the motherfucker that caused all this pain?" Ian looked at Brian dumbfounded. "How can I help you? Does it have to do with Angel Island?" Brian nodded. "I think I thought of a way to destroy the Robotnik occupation of Angel Island, destroy a lot of his forces, and preety much make him shit himself and panic." Ian smiled. "All at once? Impossisable!" Brian shook his head. "No, what's imposisable is me following you unintentionally across the galaxy. This is simple, something he will never have thought of if he never developed and nucular weapons. He never did, did he?" Ian shook his head. "He tried, but without success. What, are you going to nuke Angel Island? That's no good." Brian smiled. "Nope, I'm going to cause a very severe thunderstorm."  
  
"5 minutes until landing, princess!" The pilot caled back. "I'm going to set the armada down in a small clearing with no present activity and activate a radar screen around us. Then we can unload." Sally pushed a small button on the console by her arm. "Very well."  
  
"What?" Ian said, sitting up in the bed, staring at Brian with wide, confused eyes. Brian smiled. "In 2027, when the International Tactical Nuclear Weapon Ban was put into effect, the most critical scientific papers involving Nuclear Weapons, testing, and their side effects were locked up. Since Robotnik had no access to those files, it it likely that he dosen't know about the EMP wave." Ian shook his head and narrowed his eyes in confusion. "EMP?" Brian spun and faced Ian. "Electro-Magnetic Pulse. A pulse of energy is generated by a Nuke when it is detonated in low-orbit around a planet. Everything hit by this wave that was electrical would short out and overload. The same affect can be found by shorting out two power cells, only smaller." Ian smiled. "So what, we do this on the Island?" Brian shook his head. "No, the affect wouldn't be big enough since there is so little power. But if you detonated a particle accelarator at full power-" Ian caught on. "The produced wave would short out all of the Swat-Bots and any other equitment." Ian looked up at Brian. "What about our stuff?" Brian smiled. "This is where I need your help. Do you remember the frequency that his equitment operates on? If I have that frequency, I can set the particle accelerator for that frequency." Ian leaned back in his bed and closed his eyes. Brian waited nervously. Finally, after about a minute, Ian set up and spoke. "All war staff and supplies operate at 1.2464354871087 Gigahertz. Now, I have one request. Take me with you. I can fight as well as you can." Brian almost opened his mouth and said no, but at the last second Brian saw a slight pleading look in Ian's eyes that said 'Please, let me do this. Let me try to be the good man I wanted to be.' So Brian granted him his request.  
  
Brian opened his safe and pulled some stuff aside. Brian pulled out a uzi, a 15-round handgun, and a magnum .357 revolver. He pulled out one of his old kevlar training vest and loaded it with the guns and the ammo. He handed it to Ian who put it on and tightened the straps so it fit his frame snugly. They had just spent the last 3 hours getting Sally permission for Ian to come with them and loading the shuttles. Brian and Chuck would be flying their shuttle, and Ian would be in the back with the others. Tails and Bunnie would be back there, and they promised to keep an eye on Ian. Brian finished zipping his boots and put his shotgun in his holster. He put his leather jacket on. He mentally activated the WatchCom and charged his reserve cells. He attenuated his nervous system for fastest reaction and locked his systems in place. He was ready for battle. He looked over at Ian. "Ready?" Brian asked, his natural deep blue eye color and the neon green energy of the WatchCom mixing, causing his eyes to twinkle. Snively finished loading the revolver and holstered it. "As ready as I'll ever be..." Rotor knocked at their door. "C'mon guys! Were leaving early! The princess' camp is under attack!" 


	17. Enroute to Angel Island Part One

The Robotnik Complex  
  
Chapter 17  
  
A/N: Since I now have a job, I am thinking of asking a friend to help me with this story. This friend (Pen Name: Duke) is one of the best writers I know and is very creative. He is willing to help me with this and I am still considering it. Just thought I would try to let you know what's going on and I want your opinion. I am also trying to get to the next chapters faster as the tension and drama in the story continue to build. That's all. On to Chapter 17!  
  
Location: Knothole  
  
Brian and Ian carfully sat the mini-particle accelerator they had swiped from the robotisizer into the storage area in the back of the hypersonic shuttle. He turned to Ian. "No matter what, don't let anything happen to it. I'll see you when we land." Ian nodded to Brian and got in the shuttle, closing the door behind him. Rotor came up to him. "Everything has been locked down, the radar shield is holding, and all launch systems are on auto." Brian nodded. "Get in with the others. It's time to get to that fucking island." Rotor nodded and opened the rear door. He started to get in but tossed a small case to Brian. "Put those in. They're communicators." Rotor closed the rear door. Brian opened the case and saw a pair of what looked like contact lenses. He put them in and waited. He felt a minor itching in his eyes and temples for a few seconds then he saw a graphic overlay in front of his vision. It was a tracking grid with small icons in one corner. "This is blocking my view!" Brian said, irritated. Then the display dropped away. "Wait a minute..." Brian thought about the display. It came back into his view. He checked it out quickly. It had a star locator for tracking, a program for velocity, momentum, and trajectory tracking, and a emergency reset. The reset allowed Brian to take out the contacts if he had to. He shrugged, tossed the case away, and climed up the ladder to the cockpit of the shuttle. Brian opened the door and got into the cramped bucket seat in front of him. He took off his jacket and stowed it under the seat. Chuck was setting up the navigation system for the flight. "Angel Island is always moving, so we need the onboard computer to help us. It's position is never the same." Brian nodded and strapped himself in. He turned on the piloting, engine, and sensor computers. He heard a small grind as the hard drives came up to speed. He checked all systems, locked all systems into the main computers control, and activated the main fuel pump. He heard a woshing as the tanks  
  
beneath the cockpit charged and primed the main ignition system. "Ready for launch." He stated flatly to Chuck, who had just finished completing his pre-flight checks. "We are leading the launch. Brian, you have the con. We are clear of all traffic." Brian nodded, then activated the primary fuel exchange. A light rumble went through the craft before the molecular bonding generator kicked in and counteracted the stress. "Primary fuel exchanger online and primed, go for launch." Brian nodded, and scanned his control panel. "All systems green." Brian reached over and opened the heat vents and hit the igniter. The craft began floating toward the tunnel entrance. "Throttle at 1% full power." Brian stated. He checked the nav board. "Launching in track 3. Increasing thrust to 20%." Brian pushed the throttle forward and the craft floated foward fasted. They entered the tunnel and started curving. After about 30 seconds the tunnel dipped downward. Brian reached forward and primed the other two launch engines. The tunnel was tilting downward about 30* now, straighting out. They traveled for 45 more seconds, than the tunnel took a sharp turn upward. "Main flight engine active." Brian stated as he pushed the IGNITE switch. Even though the throttle was still at 20%, the extra thrust caused the speed to jump from 35 to 163 Miles per hour. They suddenly came out of the tunnel. Uncle Chuck hit a switch. Brian heard a thud above them as the crafts wings expanded to their full wingspan of 80 feet. They had exited the tunnel above the forest at Hill Top Zone. Brian pushed the throttle forward to 50%. They started to slowly coast upward. "Priming Hypersonic engines." Brian said as he hit a few more switches on his console. The Hypercrystal, the heart of the Hypersonic engine, charged itself for the 7 hour trip using the sunlight collected by solar panels on top of the passenger compartment. "Hypercrystal charged." Chuck said. Brian grinned. "Let's see what this baby can do..." He leaned forward, shut down the main engines, and hit COMMIT on the Main Drive screen. He felt the craft suddenly lurch forward as it accelerated to Mach 5.021. The molecular bonding generator struggled to keep the craft from flying apart, and won in the end. "Course set for Angel Island, altitude: 50,000 feet." Chuck said. Brian nodded and gave control to the main computer. He tapped a few keys on his console and a small hatch slid open. He slowly stood up and started out of the hatch, back toward the passenger compartment. "I want to see how Ian is doing." Brian said. Chuck nodded and Brian continued toward the passenger compartment.  
  
*****  
  
"Ian, do you really know what you are doing?" Rotor asked for the 12th time. They were in the back storage reprogramming the particle accelarator for the EMP blast. Rotor thought that Ian was going too fast and was being reckless. Ian just said to trust him. Ian hit enter on a keypad, closed the circuit access door and locked it. He handed the key to Rotor. "Done." Ian said, and stood from his crouching position on the floor. Rotor looked skeptical, but said nothing. Brian walked into the compartment. "How is it going?" Brian asked. "Done. It will take 12 monutes to charge, but when it detonates, the EMP field will cover all of Angel Island." Brian nodded his head. "Good. This is better than I-" The intercom crackled. "Brian, Princess Sally wants to talk to you."  
  
Brian sat back into the pilot seat and engaged the ComScreen. A image of Sally appeared. "Brian, this is Sally. All out forces have been driven under the Island surface. Even when you arrive, it still won't be enough to defeat Robotnik if we are separated. I need you, Chuck, Tails, Rotor, and Ian to come up with a way to distract Robotnik long enough for the two teams to combine. Once that happens, we will have enought man power to force Robotnik off the island." Brian sighed. "Princess, we have a weapon to use aganst him-" The princess interupted him. "And somehow he knows about it. About 75% of his forces have had their control frequencies changed. The rest he can't change. I need you guys to think of something fast. Good luck." Sally signed off. Brian just sat there for a few minutes, not moving, not saying anything. Chuck was about to say something to him when he looked bown at his combat boots. "I have an idea." Brian said. He motioned for Chuck to come with him.  
  
A few minutes later Brian, Ian, Rotor, Chuck, and Tails were all in the rear of the passenger compartment. Brian had two crates next to him marked "Thermal-Electric" and "Nuclear-Electric". He began to talk to the others. "We need a way to distract Robotnik from Sally and the rest of the Freedom Fighters long enough to land and regroup." Ian laughed. "That's next to imposisable." Brian and the others looked at Ian. "Why do you say that?" Tails asked. "Do you, for a second, really think that Robotnik is interested in Angel Island?" Tails looked shocked. "Yeah, he want's the master emerald." Ian shook his head. "Why would he want the emerald? Maybe a few years ago, yeah. But now he has no need for it. The only reason he really ever wanted it was because he was running out of coal, not because he was building some new weapon. That was a cover. He knew that if you ever knew the truth, you would destroy the coal mines and his reign would be over. No, what he really want's is Sonic. And since that is his goal, a bull wouldn't be able to deter him." Brian thought about this for a second. "What if you presented him with a threat that outweighed his first goal?" Ian smiled, knowing what Brian was thinking. "Destroying that threat would become his first priority. And there is one thing I can think of that would cause him to do that." Brian smiled at his brother. "Tell them." Ian got a sly look on his face. "You."  
  
*****  
  
Antoine and Bunnie were sitting together near the middle of the passenger cabin, talking. They both were wondering what was going on in the back. "Ah sure do hope it's not sumthing bad!" Bunnie said, ajusting hre robotisized arm. Instead of the usual arm on the end, she converted it to a plasma cannon Rotor had built for her. Antoine looked at her. God, she's beautiful Antoine thought. "It's most likely nothing. You shouldn't worry so much." Bunnie looked at him. "I can't help it! I'm the last to admit it when I'm frightened, but I'm so nervous right now I could make a speed- freak look calm!" Antoine layed a hand on top of her real hand, which was gripping the right armrest tightly. She looked over at him. He was staring at his feet, obviously nervous about his actions. "Antoine." He looked up into her green eyes. And that was all he needed to do.  
  
Brian was opening the box marked Thermal-Electric and pulled out a pair of miniture engine coils. "these are energy jets. They work by converting electricity into thermal energy. They're not very efficient so they require a large amount of energy. Since I can't tap my cybernetic energy reserves to power these jets," He opened the other box, marked Nuclear-Electric. He pulled out two small power cells that were glowing with a blue nuclear fire. "That is where these come in to play. There small miniturized nuclear reactors. They have a 75 year lifespan. I picked them up in Robotropolis. I commect the jets to my boots, power them with the cells, and fly over thr island a few times, destroy a few bots, and Robotnik will be seeing red." Everyone nodded their head in agreement. Brian took off his boots and started rewireing the cells, and everyone else went back to there seats, Chuck to the cockpit. It sounded like a good plan, like nothing could go wrong. The freedom fighters could have never been more mistaken. 


	18. Enroute to Angel Island Part Two

The Robotnik Complex Chapter 18 AN: I know that this was a long time coming but I had very little time to write as I am now a cook at my job. Sorry for the wait, I hope you enjoy!  
  
Brian tightened the last screw holding the electric-thermal engines he had built to his boots. He sat the boot down and yawned. He still had 5 hours to go before he had to do anything, so he decided to head forward to the main passenger compartment to take a nap. He passed the rear seats where Tails and Amy were sitting, talking. He continued forward until he found Bunnie and Antoine sitting together. Sighing, he continued up another 4 rows until he found a couple of empty seats. He snached a small pillow from under one of the seats, reclined the seat he sat in, and dozed off.  
  
***** Brian sat up. He was in his old house in Bellevue, Ohio in his room. His computer was on, the first draft for the Blade Runner on the screen. He looked at the date on his watch. It was June 24, 2058, the day he had completed his design. "What am I doing back here?" Brian said to himself as he stood up and walked over to the computer  
  
*****  
  
"Brian! Wake up!" Chuck yelled into Brian's ear. Brian jumped. "Ahhh, fuck!" Brian shouted before he calmed himself. "What, is it time to land?" Brian asked, rubbing his eyes. "No, not for thirty minutes, but you need to get ready for the diversion." Brian nodded his head and headed toward the back of the ship. Ian was typing furiously at one of the computer terminals near the rear of the passenger compartment. Brian looked at the screed over Ian's shoulder and saw several windows displaying programming code, energy readouts, and a communications tools. Ian looked behind him and saw Brian. He pointed to a chair next to the terminal and Brian sat. Ian typed for another minute, then closed all the windows except the comm tools. He looked over at Brian. "Open your RF Comm Channel." Brian looked confused. "Why? What program did you write?" Ian sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "It's a central nervous system enhancer. It uses your Cyber-implants and the computer in your arm to speed up and improve the efficency of your synaptic relays. It will also speed up reaction time and help you be more aware of the world around you. This is all in the normal run mode. If you allow it to use 4 times more processor speed, it will improve your synaptic relays to such an extent that time will appear to stop. You can only use it for about 25 real-time seconds before your nervous system would collaspe under the weight of nerve signals, so it has an auto-cutoff for 20 seconds." Ian looked at Brian. "Do you want it?" Brian closed his eyes and open a comm channel. "Use Short-Range 4 for transmission." Brian closed his eyes. A few seconds later he felt the information begin to pour in. He assigned it a folder and let in download. After it was complete, he activated in. The results were instant. "I feel incredible!" Brian said in amazment. All his senses felt like they were running on afterburners. He could taste the residue of the apple he had that morning on his tounge. "Give me a second." Ian said, typing a short command in. The effect went away, but Brian could still feel it lurking just beneath the surface, like it was about to explode outward. "I just activated a damping program. If you are in a non-combat situation, the enhancer will remain inactive. If you are wounded, it will damping just those nerves so your not inpaired by the pain." Brian nodded and closed the comm channel. "Thanks Ian." Ian nodded. "I just have a feeling your going to need it." Brian nodded. "I have to go get my shoes ready." Brian stood up and walked into the back compartment. Brian sat down on a small stool in the back compartment. He rolled up his pant legs and reached for the boots. He picked one up and toyed with it in his hands for a few minutes. Finally he sat it back down on the floor. He reached and pressed a small button on the power cell. The small jets turned a bright blue and the boot started to hover about 4 feet above the floor. Brian reached out and pushed the boot slightly. It floated in the direction that he pushed it for a few inches, then straightened out and stopped. Brian nodded his head and pushed the button again. The boot dropped to the floor. He reached down and slipped the boot on. He put both boots on and rolled the pants over the tops. He opened a comm channel to the boots computer and locked it open, and labeled the boots as a add-on. 'Good. No more button pushing.' Brian thought to himself. A knock sounded on the rear compartment door. "Come in." Brian said calmly. Bunnie walked in. "Chuck wanted me to tell you we are about 5 minutes from slowing to subsonic. Another 15 after that is when you start your flyover." Brian nodded. "Thank you." Brian said. Bunnie hesitated before begining to walk out. "Wait." Brian said just before she started to open the door. "Bunnie, what's wrong?" Brian asked, concern in his voice. She turned around. "Just don't get killed, OK?" Brian looked at her like she had just grown a new set of eyes. "Get killed? That's the least of my worries." Bunnis looked startled. "Then what's the biggest worry you have?" Brian put on a rueful smile. "Burning the piss out of my pants with my boots. These are nice pants you know..." Bunnie smiled and chuckled. "Good luck." Brian nodded. "You too." Bunnie turned and walked out. Brian smile went away in a instant. "I'm not liking all these morbid thoughts." Brian said to himself just before walking out of the compartment, toward the cockpit. He didn't see St. John lurking in the shadows with a small handheld computer. "Frequency Verified." The computer stated. St. John smiled. "Today, Brian. Today is the day you die."  
  
*****  
  
"Ready for Hypercrystal shutdown." Brian stated from the pilot seat of the shuttle. "Shut it down in one minute...mark!" Chuck hit enter on his board and a counter on the main monitor started. Brian started bringing the main engines back online. "10 seconds." Chuck said as Brian charged the main fuel lines. "5...4...3...2...1...Shutdown!" Brian disconnected the Hypercrystal and activated the thrusters. "Systems are green, 17 minutes until Angel Island, speed is 576 Miles per hour." Brian said as he unlatched the seatbelt harness and grabbed the jacket he had stowed under the seat. "I'm going to go get ready. I'll be in the back if you need me." Brian turned and half-walked half-crawled through the door. When Brian arrived in the back, everyone was busy. Tails was loading his gun and putting spare clips in his jacket pocket. Amy was loading her crossbow and spare bows into her carrying case. She also brought along a large wooden hammer. Brian looked strangely at the hammer, but said nothing. St. John was also loading his crossbow into its case, but he was using electro-charged arrows instead of steel. Antoine had a sword, and Bunnie had a metal staff, in addition to her arm. 'What a crew.' Brian thought as he reached into a container and brought out his holster and Shotgun. He reached into the box and brought out all the spare ammo he brought along: 10 clips, each holding 20 rounds for the gun. The gun was already loaded, so he really had 11 clips. He put the shotgun into his holster and pit the ammo into a side pack he had. He slipped his jacket on and put on a pair of sunglasses he had brought. He was ready. He approched the side hatch where Ian and Rotor were waiting for him. "Remember, 3 passes over the island, then land on the south end." Rotor said while checking the thrusters. "Any less than that, and it will not give us enough time. Any more, he'll know something's up. Ready?" Brian nodded. A green light went on on the console next to the hatch. "We're in range. Good luck, See ya on the island!" Ian said grinning. Brian smiled. "Hopefully!" Brian pushed a button on the console to activate a protective field around the hatch so pressure wouldn't change inside the cabin when he opened the door.  
  
*****  
  
Sally looked up toward the coming armada through a modified telescope that could see through the ships cloke. She saw the front ship's side hatch slide open. "Good luck, Brian. Your going to need it." 


	19. Traitor

The Robotnik Complex Chapter 19  
  
"Are you sure you have the right servo frequency?" Robotnik asked St. John. He was talking to him from his base on Angel Island. "Yes, I just have to wait until he's near a hazard, like the edge of the island or a fire, I flip a switch, and he won't know what hit him!" St. John smiled, he was going to be well rewarded for this. "Also, do you know if the brain implant worked for Snively?" St. John nodded. "He has no memories of any special projects as far as I can tell. They all think it was a mind control device." "Great!" Robotnik cakcled. "It's just the beginning of their bad luck. I'll see you on the island." St. John thought of something. "Wait!" But the screen had already went black. "Damn! I didn't tell him about that damn decoy!" St. John tried to call him back, but recieved no answer. 'I'll have to go down there myself." He strapped a parachute onto himself and opened the rear escape hatch. He programmed it to close after he left and jumped out, activating one of Robotnik's stelth modules on the way down. "We just heard from Chuck, we're 30 seconds from the island. We'll meet you on the south end, see you there! 3-2-1, Jump!" Rotor yelled. And Brian jumped. He passed under the shuttle's wing and saw it continue to fly away. He looked down to the island. "That," He said to himself. "That is a long fucking way down." He suddenly realized he was still falling. He activated his boots and began to hover in midair. "Let's make this good." He began to gather energy. "Here are the thrillseekers, corrupt and immoral." Brian said to himself and he began to glow fire red all over. He tipped forward and streaked across the sky. He pointed himself downward and started getting closer to the island surface. "Princess! Brian's making his first pass now and the shuttles are coming around to land." Sally dismissed the lookout. "Ok everyone!" She yelled above everyone in the room. "Get ready! As soon as they all touch down, we're attacking the command center!" Brian felt something snag the edge of his jacket as he turned to begin his second run, still glowing. He looked at a bullet hole in his jacket. "Oh, you fucks are dead." He spat toward the robots on the ground. "This is a $500.00 jacket! It's worth more than your entire army!" He screamed at them. "What are they doing...? Oh shit!" He began his second run, trying to dodge the hundreds of bullets flying at him. "I must be fucking insane." Brian said to himself as he was hit on his right upper arms plating, tearing another hole in his jacket. "Goddamnit!" Chuck radioed the other shuttles in the armada. "Land on south point, in sequence, every 15 seconds. After all shuttles are down, a radar and light cloke will be established around the landing zone. Any pilot not down within 15 seconds will be repremanded. Initiate landing run now." Chuck switched off the radio and started his landing. Sally was stacking the crates that held the radar equitment by the shelter elevator. She turned to the 3 people behind her that were sitting crates down. "After the first shuttle lands, we haul ass and set these up. Chucks team will set up the light clokes. We'll only have about a minute thirty to get all 4 into standby mode, so move fast." She looked at a computer terminal next to the elevator that displayed a view of the landing area. Chuck was about 30 seconds from touchdown. "Load the crates into the elevator, we have 30 seconds." Brian stopped after completing his second run. He pulled his shotgun out of his holster and disabled his special effects program. The red glow dissapeared. "Ok, you little Tom Petty wannabes. Your going down." He tilted himself downward and flew toward a cluster of robots. He sat his gum on spread fire and took a shot 50 feet away. They were all blown apart. He flew back up with a smile on his face and continued his last run. "Move it, go, go, go!" Sally shouted and they all fanned out across the opening in the forest and ran to the corners. She got to her corner and broke the crate open. She pulled out the tripod stand and sat the cloker on top of it. She pulled a key out of it's packaging and turned the radar jammer to stand-by. The indicator slid into place a second later. "Jammer one in place!" She heard someone yell out. "Jammer 2 in place!" She yelled. Three and four called in after that. She radioed Chuck. "Are the light clokers in place?" She asked. "Yes. All have landed. Activating all jamming systems now." She looked at the indicator. It slid into on-line position. "Chuck, are all systems functioning?" Chuck answered back right away. "Yes, all systems operational." She sighed. So far everything had gone to plan. "Chuck, we wait for Brian to return and then we attack head-on." It took him a second to radio back. "Ok...by the way, have you seen St. John?" Brian landed about a quarter of a mile away from the camp, on the south edge of the island. Right after he landed he saw St. John walk into the small clearing. Brian was confused. "Geoffery, what are you doing here?" St. John just smiled at him. "Did you know that I have always had an interest in nano-neurotechnology? For example, the robotisization process, or your cybernecics." Brian didn't like the feel of this. He knew something was wrong. He started walking toward St. John. "No, I didn't. I'll be happy to carry on this discusion once were back in Knothole." Geoffery got the look of someone who suddenly remembered something important. "We'll, that presents a problem." Brian nodded. "Why is that, Geoffery?" He let his hand rest on his gun. St. John pulled out his handheld computer. "Because your not going back to Knothole." He pressed a command button on the palm. Brian suddenly felt like his nervous system had fell out. He couldn't breath, and he had a feeling that his heart had stopped. 'What did that bastard do to me!' Brian screamed inside his own head, begining to panic. St. John walked over and dragged him to the edge. He knelt down and whispered into Brian's ear. "Don't worry though, I'll make sure that each of your friends has a turn at your marvelous machine. Thanks for building it, I could have never done it that fast." St. John stood up and kicked Brian over the edge. He leaned over slightly and watched his body head toward the cloud clover. St. John stood straight and smiled. "How sad, he was such a young idiot." He laughed and turned, heading back toward the camp, activating his radar beacon on the way. "Robotnik, I better get a very big reward for all this..." Brian knew his body was dying. 'There's only one chance, I have to go into my mind and repair whatever St. John did to me... I have minute's, if that.' He closed his eyes and began to relax himself. He opened his eyes and he was inside his mind. He reached around and began turning all the terminals on. He stopped at one and typed a few commands. "That's not it!" Brian said and turned the terminal off. He went to the next one and repeated the process. "Nope." He shut it off. '2 down, 16 to go.' He thought as he went to the next terminal. St. John stepped into the clearing that was the base camp and stepped beyond the cloke. As soon as he appeared Sally ran up to him. "St. John, where have you been?" St. John cleared his throat. "Robotnik's troops have moved. I was scouting their new location." Sally nodded. "Have you seen Brian?" St. John shook his head. 'It's just so easy!' He thought. "No," he told Sally. "I havn't seen him, but I'm sure he's bound to show up." Robotnik turned to Metal. "Have you got a fix on their posision? Metal turned away from his station. "Yes, Doctor." Robotnik grinned. "Begin the attack, live capture. Send the Swat-Bots to Knothole, tell them to trash the place and bring anyone there to the Proteus holding cells, alive." Robotnik stood and walked toward the door leading to the outside launchpad. "I'm going back to Robotropolis to power up the Proteus. I am leaving you in charge." Metal nodded. "Yes, Doctor." Robotnik walked out the door, stopping the door from closing before he left. He had malice in his voice. "Don't screw up." He let the door close. 


	20. Skyline City

The Robotnik Complex Chapter 20  
  
Brian turned off the last terminal. He checked and saw he was about to pass the cloud cover. He didn't have much time. "There's only one thing I can still try..." Brian said to himself as he walked over to the main terminal. He began to type. 'SYS RESTART: ALL NEURO-PATHWAYS' The computer processed for a moment than prompt him. 'ARE YOU SURE?' He typed. 'YES.' He pressed enter and everything went black. When he woke up, he found he had full usage of his body...and that he was 50 feet from the desert ground. He quickly righted himself and activated his boots. He barely missed the ground, quickly changing direction, still carrying all his momentum from the fall. A second later, he slammed into the side of a sand dune. He lay there for a moment before rolling over and coughing up sand out of his mouth. A small amount of blood came up with it. He saw before he passed out was a small car, driving over the hill towards him. 'I must be halucinating...' He thought to himself. Then he lost his hold on reality and passed out. "I'm telling you, he left us high and dry. I don't know what his motivation was, but he is a traitor to the crown!" St. John shouted over the whine of the twin turbine engines on the transport to Robotropolis. Sally, sitting on the other side of the cramped compartment, next to Sonic, shook her head and yelled back at him. "I trusted him. I know he didn't betray us. Something else had to of happened! What if he was killed?" Tails looked up from holding Amy, who was crying silently. "Yeah? And what if Robotnik was never born? Robotnik's alive and Brian's gone. That is the situation we have to deal with. I really don't think we can afford any 'what-ifs' right now, Sally." Antoine looked up from where he was sitting. Bunnie had been assigned another transport. "What does it matter! Once we get to the city he's just going to do one of three things! 1, torture us, 2, robotisize us, 3, a combination of the two! Princess," He turned toward Sally. "I, and every other freedom fighter has sworn to you to fight to the end. but when the cards are down, what else can we do? That fat bastard has a Full House, and looks like he's collecting all the chips." Sally shook her head. "No, Antoine, no matter what, there has to be a way at least some of us can escape. I mean," Sally looked around to all her comrads faces. "There is no possisable way he can robotisize all of us at once!" Ian jumped to his feet, pale white. "My God!" He gasped, a look of horror on his face. Sally looked at him in shock. "What, What is it, Ian?" Ian slid along the wall until he was again sitting. He began speaking in a low voice, the others strained to hear him. "When we were first being captured, I..had a feeling...that there was something I was forgeting. I kept asking my self, why was he capturing us alive? He has portable robotisizers, he could have used those. Why was he bringing us to the city en masse? I was confused until just now. I have trouble remembering things, I think it was a side-effect of that chip, and it wasn't until just now I remembered a project called Proteus..." No one even saw St. John move. A second later, a crossbow bolt was through Ian's right shoulder. "Shut your cakehole you bleeding idiot or I'll shut it for ya!" Snively didn't even say anything, he just stared at the bolt. Geoffery heard a click behind him. "No, you won't..." He turned and looked down the barrel of Tail's handgun, the only weapon besides St. John's that had not been confiscated by accident. St. John's mouth dropped open. He was losing control of the situation. "Tails, he was making things up to dissuade us from our mission..." St. John tripped over his own words. Tails' aim was steady and his demeanor was calm and cool. "A lot of us may be blind St. John, but me, my eyes are wide fuckin' open. The only traitor here is you." St. John tried his best to look shocked. "Tails," Sally said lightly. "That is a very serious charge. What proof do you have?" Tails kept his gun trained on Geoffery. "Two things. One, He shot Ian as he was trying to reveil something important to us. You might want to get him a blanket and remove the arrow, he's going into shock." Amy got up and went over to assist Ian, who was curled up in a corner. "Two, what does it smell like in here? Everybody started smelling. "Sulfur. That's what your getting at, right? Sulfur!" Sonic was the first to answer. Tails nodded his head. "Exactly. Brian's boots were modified with a nuclear-electric engine. That engine is very efficient, but it still has one by-product." Tails looked at Geoffery. "A form of Sulfur. You smell like sulfur, so it is reasonable to believe that you were the last one near Brian, since Sulfur Dioxide breaks down in about an hour." St. John just stared at Tails for a moment. "Alright, fine, I betrayed you. So what? What can you do about it now? Nothing! It's moot!" Antoine walked up to him. "Not quite." Antoine kicked St. John very hard in the groin. St. John dropped to the floor. "I owed you one..." Antoine said as he leaned down to disarm him. He tossed the crossbow into the corner of the transport. He pulled out a set of handcuffs from his pocket and handcuffed St. John's hands behing his back. "By the power vested in me by the House of Acorn, I hearby place you under arrest under the charge of treason." Antoine dragged the skunk into another corner of the transport and left him there. He walked back to where he was sitting and sat. "So," He asked calmly. "What is our situarion, Ian?" Everyone just stared at him. "Ant, did you just arrest St. John?" Sonic asked. "I used reasonable force." Sonic just shook his head. 'Man, and all the times I thought he was a joke, he subdued St. John...Damn.' Sonic thought to himself. His thoughts were interupted by a wail of pain. Amy came over from the corner. "He lost a lot of blood. He needs medical attention in a real hospital. I can do nothing more for him here." Sally nodded. "Thank you Amy." They all moved over to the corner where Ian sat, wrapped in Amy's jacket. Sally leaned toward Ian. "Ian, I need to know what the Proteus is..." And he told them.  
  
*****  
  
Brian slowly opened his eyes to reveil he was inside a room. He layed in a very comfortable bed under a white cotton sheet. Besides his boxers and socks, all his clothing were missing. He sat up and... "Ohhh!" He grabbed his ribs. They were very painful to him, but they felt fine to his touch. Then the pain just dropped away. "What the hell?" He looked around him. Next to his bed lay his clothing, so he got up to get dressed. He put his pants on and stopped to inspect his arms. Besides minor scuffs, it was flawless. "Great. At least I don't have to worry about that...now I just need to find where the hell I am..." As he was putting his shirt on, he heard the door on the other side of the room open. He turned to find... "My god, you're human..." She came over, handed him his gun that she carried in, and looked at him quizically. "Hu-man, I don't know of that word." She was about 5' 7" with curly red hair that fell down to her shoulders. She was pale with a very soft looking cream colored skin. "Oh, yes, your a terran..." He said softly. She laughed. "Of coarse I am, so are you, except it looks that you have wandered too far south. You were captured by him, weren't you?" He looked down. 'She's talking about your arm, Dumbass!' He screamed at himself. "Oh, no, I did this myself." She suddenly looked horrorfied. "Why would you do such a thing to yourself?!" He smiled at her. "I lost one of my arms, and I needed both to fight the war." She looked at him darkly. "You fight with the Mobians?" He nodded. "I must go report to my commander." She turned to leave and he noticed for the first time she was wearing a uniform. "Wait, before you go, tell me where I am!" She turned toward him and smiled. "Your in Skyline City, look out your window." She walked out the door, closing it behind her. He walked over to the window and gasped. It was dark out and the building he was in looked to he the tallest. The city was huge. Cars and trucks on highways, helecopters in the sky, and directly in front of him was a giant cliff looking out toward the ocean, and the sky, and off in the distance, he saw where the two met and smiled. 


	21. Call to Action

The Robotnik Complex Chapter 21  
  
AN: Man, I'm just tossing these out, aren't I? I finally motivated myself, yay. I'll try to go as fast as I can because the end is in sight!  
  
Sally layed her head into her hands and sighed. "Ian, are you sure he has the machine operational?" Ian nodded slowly. "It's the only reason he would have taken us to the city like this." He stopped and shivered hard. "Otherwise he would have killed us on site. But do not lose hope Princess, the Proteus takes 36 minutes to bring online once all the tubes are locked. That gives you time to escape. The tubes can be broken, you just need to find a weak point in the surface. And since it's almost sundown he won't use the Proteus tonight, he'll use it sometime before noon tomorrow. At the heart of the Proteus device is a chaos emerald. when a high voltage current is run through it, it becomes extremely reactive. It is then shot with a beam of pure, concentrated photons gathered from solar panels outside the city. This generates a highly modulated radio signal. This radio wave is sensitive to changes in organic matter. That's how he gets around using supercomputers for each tube. This way, he just needs one." Ian stopped to shiver again. He knew his time was limited. He sat up and looked Sally in the eyes. "Sally, whatever St. John did to Brian, I'm sure he survived somehow. I know him. Even if he has to swim to get here, he would rather die that see anyone else die through his inaction. Do you understand what I'm saying?" Sally had tears in her eyes. "Yeah. I do..." Ian smiled at her. "Good..." He closed his eyes and stopped breathing. Amy checked his pulse, but didn't say anything. She just covered his body as best she could with her jacket. "Rest in peace, Ian." Amy said softly. Tails held her tightly and they walked away from the body.  
  
*****  
  
"Excuse me, Brian?" Brian turned away from the window as a middle- aged man entered the room. He had a pepper gray beard and a bald head. "I'm General Robert Kinyo of the 2nd Desert Patrol division. How do you feel?" Brian nodded. "Decent, considering just a short time ago I fell off Angel Island." Gen. Robert grinned. "Yes, all thing's considered, I would think you consider yourself a very lucky young man." Brian laughed. "Yes, sir, you colud say that." The General nodded. "That girl in here earlier, that was my grand-daughter, Sarah. She told me that your robotic limbs were done purpously...Is this true?" Brian nodded. "Yes, but before anything else, can I ask you a question?" Robert nodded. "By all means..." Brian put a serious look on his face. "Do you know the battle condition of Angel Island?" Robert opened his mouth, than shut it. He walked over to the window and looked out over the city. Finally he turned back to Brian. "I am sorry to say that Angel Island is occupied by Dr. Robotnik. All living creatures are in transport to Robotropolis where they will take place in a experiment." Brian walked over to the General. There was ice in his eyes. "What type of experiment, General sir?" The general raised his hands in defense. "Trust me, we are in no way involved with that vile excuse for a man. We do however monitor his network. The experiment is called Proteus. The Proteus has the ability to robotisize 300 liftforms at once. I don't have all the details, all I know is that it works and your friends are going to be it's first victims at 11:00 tomorrow." Brian walked over to the bedside table and pulled his boots on. "I'm going." Brian was reaching for his jacket when Robert stopped him. "Brian..." Brian turned to face him. "How do you know my name anyway?" Robert reached into the pocket of his tan pants and pulled out Brian's dogtags. He handed them to Brian. "Those say you were a Captain, First Class. Now believe me, there are hundreds of questions I want to ask you, but for now will you just listen to me?" Brian sat on the edge of the bed and Robert pulled up a chair. "The Mobians and us Terrans have had a long and bloddy history. Now, most of my race seem to think that if the Mobians are wiped off the planets surface, great. But me, and a few Generals from other divisions, are smarter than that. We realize that if he destroys the Mobians, he'll come after us next. And with the Proteus on his side, we won't have a chance. I see this as a chance to finally unite our two races and defeat Robotnik. After that, the posisbilities are limitless. We would be setting the dawn of a new era for all of Mobius. If you agree to join us, we leave in an hour. We'll arrive at the Proteus at 10:00 Am tomorrow. That will give us one hour to complete the mission: destroy the Proteus and evcacuate all prisoners back here to Skyline city. After a medical scan of each survivor to insure that nothing is wrong, they'll be transported to wherever they wish." The general sighed. "Will you join us?" Brian looked at him for a few seconds then shook hands with him. "You bet you ass I will. I wouldn't miss it for the world." Sarah walked in and saluted him. "Captain sir, Private First Class Sarah Rebecca Kinyo delivering you personal battle wears, sir." Brian smiled. 'I'm back in the military...wow...' He saluted Private Kinyo. "Thank you, Private, but I have my own armor." The General interupted. "Please, at least wear the utility vest under your jacket. It has a tracking device." The Private handed him the black vest. Brian put it on, zipped it up, and put the leather jacket on right after it. "Let's go to the hanger if there is nothing else?" Robert asked both of them. "Yes, Sir, General, Sir!" They both replied. They both followed him out the door. 


	22. Interlude 2

The Robotnik Complex Chapter 22  
  
Brian, Robert, and Sarah all walked into the hanger facing out over the entire city. The hanger door was open and a fleet of 17 helecopters were lined up for launch. "Wow, we get to use those, sir?" Brian asked Robert. He just smiled. "No, Captain, we get to ride in that!" General Robert pointed across the hanger to it's center where the floor was sliding clear of a elevator rising up through the center. Sitting on it was a blimp, or so it looked like. The 'blimp' was 150 feet long from tip to tip, 25 feet wide at it's center. Attached to each side was a 60 foot wing with twin turbine engines. "Wow..." was all Brian could say. "The helecopters are a cleanup crew. Each one holds a load of explosive that will be dropped onto the city once we are evacuated and our technicians secure the reactors inside the city. That airship is capable of holding all 300 survivors, plus 75 infantrymen and the crew of four. Ready?" A tall man in a black stealth suit walked up to them. He directly saluted Brian. "Captain, Corporal Bridges reporting to brief you on all aspects of our mission, sir!" Brian saluted the man back. "Brief me on the ship, Corporal. We have to go." He nodded. "Yes, sir. But I have been asked to give this to you sir!" The Corporal handed Brian a katana. Brian looked at General Robert for a answer. "It's a tradition in our military that all ranks Captain and above carry a sword weapon of some sort into battle. Brian grunted and clipped the katana next to his holster. "Lot of good this'll do me. I have no idea how to use one." Robbert shrugged. "Neither did I the first time. But when my gun jammed, I learned pretty goddamn quick. Captain, Corporal, Private, board the ship if you will." They all saluted him. "Yessir!" The prisoner transport landed without incident and the rear doors opened to revel a large hallway with cells on both sides. As Sally walked out of the transport, she looked left and right through a small gap around where the building and the ship almost, but not quite, meet. She could see countless other ships docked the same way around the building, whick appeared circular. Inside the transport, the front access door opened and a swat-bot shoved Bunnie into the transport and shut the door. She walked forward and met the group. "They loaded the transport wrong, I guess..." was all she said. Sally continued walking into the large hall with the others. When they were all out of the transport, a large steel door dropped from thr ceiling to block their escape. They all heard the transport take off. "Each cell will have two prisoners at the maximum. No exceptions." A metallic voice informed them as all the cell doors slid open. Sally looked suddenly amused. "They expect us to just get into the cells?!" Two guns came to life near both ends of the cells. "Comply or we will shoot." Sally looked grim again. The anger flushed her face. "You'll have to come down here and drag us into these cells! You hear me you fat fuck!" One of the guns took aim at Antoine's head and fired. As it fired, Bunnie reached her metal arm in front of his head. The bullet bounced off of her arm harmlessly. Bunnie glared at Sally and took Antoine into the nearest cell. The door to the cell shut behind them. Sally turned to look at them. "What are you doing?" Sally asked, disbelieve in her voice. Antoine looked up at her. "Living to fight another day, Sally." Sally spun to the rest of them. "And you?" Tails shook his head. "I'm sorry, Sally." He took Amy's hand and lead her into the cell next to Bunnie's. Sally spun and looked at Sonic. "I suppose your just going to roll over and die also?" Sonic just looked at her. "Sally, there is nothing we can do now...not right now..." Sally shook her head. "I'm not going in there..." The metallic voice returned. "You have 5 seconds to comply...4...3...2...1..." Brfore Sally even knew what had happened she was inside the nearest cell with Sonic. The door slid shut. She turned toward Sonic, hatred in her eyes. "Who the hell do you think you are?" Sonic just looked at her for a moment, then turned away from her and went to one of two beds inside the small cell. "Your not yourself right now. I'll talk to you in the morning...Good night Sally..." Sonic layed down. "Sonic, I hate you..." Sally said through gritted teeth. She layed down on the other bunk. "You just killed us..." She shut her eyes and went to sleep after about 15 minutes. Long after that you could still see the tears in the hedgehog's eyes. Brian was sitting next to the corporal that had talked to him on the ground earlier. The airship had lifted off an hour ago and the corporal had just finished briefing him. Brian was still confused. "Let me get this straight. You have a robotisization upgrade ready for me through tech you stole from the fat man. I recieve the upgrade, and drop into the Proteus. I distract Robotnik long enough for your tech guys to gain access to the mainframe that controls everything in the city. From there they'll shut down the reactors, issue a evac order to all Robotisized Mobians, and open the Proteus tubes. They the infantry moves in, evacuating the prisoners in the Proteus and destroying all oposition, and then we get the hell out of dodge before the helicopters drop thermite plasma over the entire city, vaporizing everything inside city limits. And all in 17 minutes, no less." Brian stopped and looked at the corporal. "Am I correct so far?" The corporal shook his head. "We also have to recover the main system board from Zik, the AI that controls Robotnik's operations over the entire planet. With that, we will have total control over all his networks. But we have a seperate team for each task. In the simulator, the entire mission took 15.35 minutes, best time." Brian looked slowly at the corporal. "And the worst time?" The corporal blushed. After a moment he answered. "...21 minutes..." Brian sat back in the seat and closed his eyes. He brought up his comm display. NOT IN RANGE OF OTHER UNITS flashed over his eyelids. He disabled the system and whispered to himself. "Don't worry guys, I'm coming for you..." 


	23. Upgrade

The Robotnik Complex Chapter 23  
  
"Captain!" the Private shouted as he approached Brian from the left. Brian was trying to concentrate on  
  
memorizing the Proteus access code he needed to sneak in. He sighed and lifted his head. "Yes Private?" The  
  
Private looked nervous. "There ready for you, sir." Brian nodded and sat up. "Thank you Private." he saluted him.  
  
"Dismissed." The Private turned on his heel and walked off. Brian sighed and headed to a small service elevator.  
  
he entered and went down.  
  
When Brian got to the engineering compartment, he found a set-up simalar to what he had in Knothole,  
  
but much clunkier looking. "Are you sure this thing will work?" Brian asked the tech that was sitting at the main  
  
console, setting up the run. "Yes, sir. It will take a few minutes for the compressors to come up to full power, so I'll  
  
show you what you're going to get." the tech pointed at a outline of a human body on the screen. It filled in with  
  
details and finally it looked like Brian. The tech pushed a few more keys on the keyboard and the screen displayed  
  
a robotic arm identical to Brian's. He tapped a few more keys and stopped. On the arm, three small trapdoors  
  
appeared around the lower arm. Symetrical, they all began just after the wrist and continued halfway to the elbow.  
  
On screen, each opened and a small metal rod extended out of each and the doors closed, locking the rods in  
  
place. "These are going to be on each arm. It's an experimental grappling system that will hold a load of one ton for  
  
30 seconds. It will hook onto anything that isn't magnetic." The tech brought up the system screen and checked  
  
his readings. "It's ready. Get in." Brian started to take off his shirt but the tech stopped him. "It's modified, so you  
  
can wear your clothing." Brian nodded and stepped onto the platform. The glass lowered and locked into place.  
  
Brian heard the generator come online overhead. "Activating now." the tech said. Brian closed his eyes.  
  
"Amy, we're going to get out of this alive...I promise!" Tails said heavily to Amy, who was blotting tears  
  
out of her eyes. She looked him in his eyes. "Tails, if...when we do get out of here, what then? Robotnik knows  
  
where Knothole is, and our communication centers, and our hidden locations. He probley even knows about  
  
Lower Mobius!" Any stopped to take a deep breath, shakely exhailed, and comtinued. "What will we do?" Tails  
  
started to say something, stopped, and started again. "I don't know Amy...I don't know..."  
  
Brian rotated his arms up and down several times, finally deciding that they were all right. "Looks good,  
  
man. Thanks." Before the tech could reply, he stood up and entered the elevator. Heading back up to the main  
  
floor, Brian activated the grappling system and ordered it to power up. Three rods on each lower arm slid and  
  
locked into place on the outer shell. Each charged with energy and a thin, green nuclear fire danced at the tips of  
  
the rods. He held his arms perpindicular to his body and jumped. At the peek of his jump, he activated the system.  
  
Streaks of green lightning danced between his arms and the wall, and his shoulder motors whined from the sudden  
  
work...but he was held. He dropped himself onto the floor and deactivated the arms. He looked at each and smiled.  
  
"Cool!" 


	24. Interlude 3

The Robotnik Complex Chapter 24  
  
Tails was laying next to Amy, sleeping, when the first glint of light played across his dozing face. It took  
  
a few minutes, but he eventully woke to Sonic signaling him with the ancient light, the thing that gave him his  
  
speed. All it was to Sonic was a small bead that slipped into his shoe. But when activated, it accelarated Sonic  
  
past speeds his ancestors could only have dreamed of. It was the first time Sonic had ever shown anyone, and for  
  
some reason it felt taboo to him to be doing it, but he had to signal Tails. Tails sat up, carful not to wake Amy's  
  
sleeping form, looking rumpled and cast a short glare at Sonic. Sonic pointed to his eye and used his other thumb  
  
and pinkie to act out a phone. Tails nodded and closed his eyes. Sonic did the same and a few seconds later sent a  
  
message to Tails.  
  
[How are you and Ames getting along?] Sonic sent over the secret band. [Okay, but what's Sally's deal with  
  
wigging out last night. You did the right thing.] Sonic shook his head by habit. [Tails, the right thing and-] Tails  
  
interupted. [-the good thing are not always the same.] Sonic was quiet for a second. [Smartass.] Tails smiled, but  
  
quickly supressed it. He had business to conduct. [Sonic, what do you really want?] He could hear Sonic sigh.  
  
[Tails...I've been thinking about our whole motto: Better dead than Robotisized. do we really mean it? I mean, dead,  
  
there is no chance at all of liberation, but as long as were robotisized, our minds can still be freed!] Tails was silent  
  
for a few moments, then finally spoke. [Well, I guess we'll find out in a hour or so...]  
  
Brian sat back in his seat and closed his eyes. He brought up his comm display. IN RANGE OF ONE  
  
UNIT flashed over his eyelids. He quickly connected. [Hello? Who is this?] It only took a few seconds for the  
  
person to respond. [I'm asking the same question.] Brian sighed. [It's Brian. Now-] He was interupted. [Brian! We  
  
all thought you were dead! This is Tails.] Brian smiled. [Tails, I know all about the Proteus, and I'm on my way with  
  
a army unit. When we arrive, don't be suprised, just trust them. OK?] It took Tails a few seconds to respond. [OK,  
  
I'll tell everyone to sit tight. See ya!] Before Brian could respond, Tails disconnected. He slowly smiled. "See ya  
  
kid..."  
  
Sonic was shaken a short time after his call to Tails. He turned and was facing Sally, laying next to him.  
  
"Hello Sonic. We need to talk."  
  
He scuffed. "What's there to talk about...you despise me."  
  
She lowered her head to her chest. "No Sonic...I despise myself. I despise myself because I'm not nearly  
  
as strong as you. I despise myself because I'm afraid. I despise myself because my pride clouds my judgement.  
  
But the reason I despise myself the most, is because I love you, and I know you could never love me. I'v hurt you  
  
so much, and-" Sally was interupted by Sonic when he started kissing her. From across the hall, Tails and Amy  
  
smiled. 'Well,' Amy thought, 'Guess they smoothed things out...'  
  
The pilot walked up to Brian smoking a cigarette. That was the first thing Brian noticed about him, since it  
  
was the first cigarette he had saw since landing on Mobius. The pilot saw this and began to chuckle. He smiled at  
  
Brian.  
  
"You smoke?" The pilot asked, then taking a drag on his cigarette, dropping it on the deck and crushing  
  
it with his brown boots. The pilot, Brian now saw, had on a pair of elbow length brown gloves, a blue mechanics  
  
suit, a pair of goggles on his head, and a yellow ascot. He sat down next to Brian.  
  
Brian shrugged. "I used to, but I quit a long time ago."  
  
The pilot looked curious. "How long ago?"  
  
Brian thought for a moment. "About 2,522 years ago."  
  
The pilot looked at him for a few seconds, then started laughing. "That's rich kid! Anyway, people on  
  
this rustbucket call me the Captain, but I like you, so call me Cid. Anyway, we are..." He thought for a moment,  
  
"...10 minutes, 32 seconds mark, from the city. I suggest you rally the troops."  
  
Brian nodded. "Thanks Cid. We'll be ready."  
  
Cid nodded. "Just make sure I don't have to come down there and beet that fat fuck with a monkey  
  
wrench." He tossed Brian a pack of cigarettes. "Good luck, Captain." He turned and walked away.  
  
Brian looked down and read the pack. "Nails...Hammer your lungs..." He shrugged, opened the pack,  
  
pulled out a cigarette, and lit it. He took a hit off it and sighed. "Ahh...It's been awhile..." He finished his cigarette  
  
quickly, then stood up. He made sure all his equitment was in place. It was. "Troops! Listen Up!" Brian yelled so  
  
loud it echoed. Everybody stood deathly still and gave Brian their absolute attention.  
  
"Today, you will go into a hostile territory. You will face death, destruction, anger, fear, and hysteria. You  
  
will no doubt fear for yourself and for others, but... remember, that when you succeed, you and you alone will  
  
have ushered this entire planet into a new era. An era of peace, justice, and equality. So go today, combat a grave  
  
injustice than has been done to your people, yes, I said your people, because the Mobians are your people. They  
  
are you in the same. So go, fight for justice, and above all...kick some ass!" The troops cheered for his as he  
  
walked over to the general.  
  
"Ready Sir?" Brian asked while saluting.  
  
The general smiled. "You bet your ass I am. 


	25. Rage Against the Machine Prelude

The Robotnik Complex Chapter 25  
  
Everyone was asleep when it started. The lights slowly came, dim at first, very dim, but soon went to full brightness. Sonic slowly sat up, Sally next to him. He didn't want to wake her, but he knew he should. He nuged her softly. She began to stir. "C'mon Sal, time to wake up." He whispered into her ear. She opened her eyes and slowly sat up. She smiled at Sonic. He smiled back. In that moment, for both of them, it was as if Robotnik didn't exist. There were no borders or boundarys. No limits. They were truely free. "Are you ready to face the day?" Sonic asked, his smile fading only slightly. She looked him in the eyes. "With you, I'm ready to face anything." He hugged her closely. "I love you, Sal." Within the next five minutes, almost everyone in the Proteus was up and awake, ready to face their future, whatever it was. When the Swat-Bots came in to all the cell blocks to move the prisoners into the Proteus, the Airship had already been over the city for 3 hours, waiting for Robotnik to make his move. The ground troops were ready to deploy, the hackers were sitting at their consoles, and special ops were ready to find the central computer. All they had to do now was wait for Robotnik. So, in a small closet sized room off of the cockpit, Brian was watching the Proteus through a infared telescope. And he saw the prisoners begin to move into the central chamber. He picked up a small phone by his side. It rung for a moment before being answered by the general. "Yes?" "There on the move. Tell the hackers to go. I'm on my way down." "God Speed. See you back at base." The general hung up. Brian exited the room quickly, heading for the airship's upper deck. As soon as Tails walked into the main chaimber, his mouth dropped open. There were twelve circles of tubes, moving outward from the center, where there was a open space, then the main control center. Swat-Bots at the begining of each row would occasionally graba prisoner and toss them onto a platform. Then, automatically, the tube would slide up, from the bottom, and climb about 20 feet to meet the ceiling. Tails was grabbed and placed into a tube. Before he could even start to move, the tube started up. He quickly wound his tails and began to quickly climb. A light shot out from the ceiling and hit him. He tumbled down to the bottom of the tube, 15 feet. He tried to keep his eyes open, but he eventully passed out. "You have 3 minutes of oxygen in this mask! You have to be through the cloud cover by then or you'll be killed by the toxins! We're barely above it now! As long as you head straight down, you should come out right above the Proteus! Land on the roof, access the vent system, and go in!" Brian listened to the Private carfully. They both had to yell because of the noise the turbofans were making, keeping the ship flying. Brian nodded as the man finished. "Got it!" Brian said and walked to the edge of the deck. He leaned over the railing. "I'm way to old for this bullshit. This is something they should have a six year old do." He jumped over the railing. As Brian dropped toward the Proteus, he rolled in time to see the infantry shuttles drop from underneath the airship, cloke, then, he guessed, head toward the surface. "Sir, the chaos emerald is at 56% power and rising. We will be at full power in 7 minutes." Metal Sonic reported to the dictator. Tails sat up in the tube slowly, holding the sides of the tube for support. Everywhere he looked, everyone was in a tube. No one he really knew was around him. He got to his feet. "Come on Brian, your making us wait all day here" He said to himself. He started looking around the tube for a way out. Brian was moving fast now, and was completely surrounded by the toxic gases above Robotropolis. He dropped below the cloud cover, dumped his mask, and opened his parachute. 'I hope the hackers got through, or I'm gonna get shot...' Brian thought grimly as he slowed down. From the sky, he could see the troops fanning out around the Proteus, waiting for him to openthe security system. Thirty seconds later, he dropped onto the Proteus roof with a soft thud. He removed his parachute and walked over to the main vent shaft. "Ok, this should lead into the power relay station, then from there into the main chamber." He opened a panel and typen in 3, 5-digit passcodes. The small light on the panel turned green, and the vent cover and security bars dropped away. He climbed in and dropped himself down. Below, since the sun never shines in Robotropolis, in the shadows of the Proteus, the infantrymen waited. Finally, the door unlocked and they started pouring into the back. The first 20 walked slowly around the outside tube ring, back in the shadows. Not even the prisoners saw them. They disabled the 50 swatbots along the outside, then signaled for the rest of the troops. "Remember," the General told them. "You are here on a rescue mission. Don't move until Brian arrives. Then focus on getting all of the prisoners out. Don't fight unless necessary!" The ten special operations soldiers rushed into the central computer building on the West Side of Robotropolis. They moved quickly and quietly around the room, carful not to set off the sound sensors around the room. Finally, after nine of the soldiers finished their tasks, they lined up in the back of the room. The 10th soldier walked up to the small counter in the middle of the room. He sat his laptop on it and connected it to various ports around the room. He then started to enter commands. A minute later he talked for the first time. "Computer, disarm security sensors." Everyone in the room tensed up. If he had set it up wrong, they would be killed by guns placed around the room. The guns didn't appear however. "Command accepted," a male voice said. "Security Containment systems off." The soldier pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. "Ok, Computer, I have a new program for you to execute. Are you ready to begin to recieve instruction?" It took the computer a moment to answer. "Ready..." the Computer said. "Ok. Instruction 1, shut down all the reactors inside the city and dump the core material into temporary storage. Reroute all systems still running to battery storage. Instruction 2, shut down all swat-bots and mobile guard units." He was going to continue but the computer interupted him. "Attention: Swat-Bot Units 10999-11311 are curently operating on a independent circuit. Mobile Patrols 50682-50705 also operating on independent circuit. The head tech turned to the others. "Those must be the ones assigned to the Proteus." The others conversed for a moment, then shool there heads. One of them spoke up. "If there operating on a independent circuit, there is nothing we can do." He turned to one of the others. "Go outside and tell the infantry commander about the situation." He nodded and walked back the way they had come in. The head tech went back to work. "Computer, previous instructions still stand. Instruction 3, dispatch a evacuation order to all Robotisized Mobians, first priority. Send them to 36 N, 42 W. Final instruction, divert all current operations to sub- computers and prepare for shut down." The tech reviewed the paper to make sure he hadn't left anything out. "Execute Program." In a matter of seconds, all the orders were carried out. "Ready for Shut Down. Program complete." Next to the laptop, a circular door popped up and slid away. A 1/2 inch thick crystal wafer slid up and waited. It was about 10 inches across and the tech could see the small neural pathways etched throughout the crystal wafer. The head-tech picked it up and put in in a small, cushioned container. He turned to the others. "Clean up, were outta here."  
  
AN: Just 5 more chapters to go, and The Robotnik Complex will be finished. Just bear with me, it will be finished by christmas, hopefull sooner. Until then, you keep reading 'em, I'll keep writing 'em. 


	26. Rage Against The Machine

The Robotnik Complex Chapter 26  
  
"Ok, we'll take care of it." The commander whispered into his headset mic. He pressed a button on a small keypad mounted on his arm. He whispered softly. "Troops, we have to take out all the SWAT bots after we are given to order to go. After the prisoners are taken to safety, taking out the bots is out first priority." One of the troops spoke up. "Where the hell is Brian?" Brian grunted as he slithered through the vent toward the power relay above the main chamber. He remembered the warning a tech had given him. "Whatever you do in there, don't touch anything. If anything is tampered with, it will activate the Proteus using battery power. This guy has one hell of a security system." He issued a final grunt as he squeezed out of the duct and dropped, sweaty and dirty, onto the room's floor. He walked carefully over to the duct that led down to the main chamber. He look through the grill down into the control room. He heard what he thought was speech, and listened. "Doctor, the emerald is at 94%. We will have robotization capability in one minute." The doctor listened and nodded, a smile forming on his face. "Very good, Metal. Bring the coolant system to full power." "Yes Doctor." 'Shit..." Brian thought as he brought his headset online. He waited a moment, and heard a voice on the other end. "Yes?" "Commander, see that duct above you? As soon as I come out, sweep in. Got it?" The commander sounded thrilled that the mission was finally really starting for him. "Yes sir." He disconected at the same time Brian did. Brian slowly stood up and took his Katana out. "Hmmm, he was right, this is going to be useful..." Brian whispered to himself. He did a quick system check, and kicked in the vent cover. It tumbled to the floor five feet in front of Robotnik and crashed loudly. Brian jumped through and hurled his Katana into the main control panel. Sparks flew and the computer screched, "System Crash, emergency release activated. All the tubes began to open. Brian activated his time program and pulled his gun from his holster. He spun, aimed at Metal's chest, and fired. A gaping 7 inch hole tore through Metal's chest and he fell to the floor, lifeless. The troops around the exterior moved quickly down toward the center of the room, destroying any robotic opposition on the way. Brian deactivated his time program as he spun his gun and aimed for Robotnik's forehead. But then his vision detected two things he had missed before. Amy's tube was still shut and Dr. Robotnik had a small trigger in his hand. -------------------------- Sally walked up to the solider who seemed to be in charge. He turned toward her as she approched. "I am guessing that you are Princess Sally Acorn, correct?" She nodded at the man. He instantly responded. "Mrs. Acorn, I am the commander ot this ground unit. We have come to liberate this city. Please save any other questions you have until we are clear of the blast radius. We must evacuate your people right away." She nodded and closed her eyes. She sent a message to everyone in the room telling them to co-operate in any way with the terrans and to follow them. She opened her eyes. "Let's go, Commander." They were about to begin to lead everyone out when Tail's ran up to them. "Sally, Amy's still trapped!" Sally looked over to the last locked tube with the pink hedgehog inside. Then she looked to Brian pointing a gun at Robotnik. "Tails," She finally said. "We're out of time. We have to get out of the city. Brian can take care of it." Tails looked for a second like he would not obey, but then he turned his head down and looked at the floor. "Troops!" The commander shouted loudly. Everyone looked up at him. "Pull out to the ship. Let's move, the clock is ticking!" Sally and the commander began to lead everyone out. -------------------------- "So, Brian, how truely grand it is to see you again after all these years." The obese doctor said, eyeing Brian's never waivering aim. "Espically since your helpless and I now have the upper hand." The doctor grinned and motioned with his free hand to Brian's gun. "You might be carful where you point that thing, if the trigger is released, she is robotisized." Brian lowered his aim. "All right, doc. Stop dicking around. What do you really want." Brian's eyes dipped to his watch quickly. 'Fuck, 3 minutes...' "Well, it's funny you asked that. I came to this planet to rule. And rulled I have done. Nearly ever natural eco-system on this planet has been disrupted thanks to my genius. Almost every living thing was killed or robotisized. But...now that your here...it all seems pointless. So what I will do is move on, to another planet, and do all this again. But first, I want revenge." Robotnik disabled the trigger to Amy's robotisizer and instantly Brian raised his gun. Robotnik brought the weapons on his arm online. "You see, we both may have come from a dying planet, but I was ment to survive, to live on. You however, was destined to die with the rest of your pathetic race." Robotnik touched a key on his arm and Amy's tube slid open. She ran out and hid in the back of the room. Robotnik touched another key and the robotisizer came online. "It's time to see who will live on, and who really is the inferior species." Robot said in a rasping voice. He lunged toward Brian. Brian quckly moved out of the way and activated his grappling arm to draw himself up to the ceiling. He activated his other arm and began to build speed swinging around the room. He felt gunfire flying through the air around him. He was constantly adjusting his course and speed to avoid being shot. He passed over Amy's hiding spot and dropped his gun down to her. He quickly sent her a message: "Shoot the fat fuck!!". He quickly altered his direction when he heard Robotnik scream out in pain. he saw she has hit his robotic arm and practically obliterated it. he dropped down low and slammed his entire body, going about 45 MPH, into the back of the Doctor. The docter practically flew into the tubes field. Brian quickly brought himself down to the floor and ran to the still on fire control panel. He was able to bring the tube's functions under his control. He deactivated the radiation damper and heard a blood-curdling scream. He watched as Robotnik's body fluids were evaporated. After a few moments, there was nothing left but a pile of ashes and the doctors cybernetics. He shut the tube down and ran back to where Amy was hiding. He grabbed his gun, holstered it, and checked his watch. "Amy, hold on to me, we're going up to the roof. We only have a minute, thirty to get out of the city." She stood up and grabbed onto his shoulders. "Brian, It's amazing that your alive! Did St. John really-?" Brian interupted her by firing his gun at the ceiling and blowing a hole in it. "Yes, Amy, it's true. Wait till I get my hand's on him." She looked shocked. "Your not going to, Brian. He's still in the city, somewhere, in one of Robotnik's shuttles. Brian nodded. "Then he's already dead, and we will be to if we don't hurry. Let's go!" Brian actrivated his grapplers and pulled them onto the roof.  
  
AN: Well, since I have almost nill experience in writing fight scenes, please excuse me if this really sucked. But, I think I did well. Please read and review. 


	27. Escape From The City

The Robotnik Complex Chapter 27  
  
Brian pulled himself and the hedgehog out of the Proteus and onto the roof. He activated the com system on his headset. "General Kinyo, this is Captain Floyd asking for further instructions." After a second, the General came on to the headset. "Brian, we're making revolutions for 175 miles per hour. We're at the north gate into the city. If your not here by the time we activate the drive system and we pass beyond the city edge, your left behind. So move your ass!" Brian killed the comm system. "Hold on, Amy." He took a deep breath and jumped off the roof. He charged his grappler arm and swung himself around a metal post ar a very sharp angle. He let go of the post and was hurled into the air. His comm came on suddenly while he was hauling himself and Amy as fast as he could down the middle of Robotropolis' main industrial sectors. "Brian," the voice spoke, almost breaking his concentration. He swung sharply around a corner, barely missing a wall. "I forgot to tell you. All swat bots are on directive 4 mode," Brian was haulted in listening when a large array of laser fire nearly killed him and his pike passenger. "This means that-" Brian yelled into the headset. "I just found out what it means...and I'm about 15 seconds away from the north gate!" "We've already activated the airtight system. You should see us through the clouds any second now." Brian did, indeed, see the ship emerge from the clouds. He swung himself twice around a giant metal arch and flung himself toward the ship. He slammed into it going 75 MPH. He was about to pass out, but he remembered the pink passenger on his back. Somehow, he kept himself awake. He turned himself carfully so she could get to the outer door next to them. He felt the weight lift from his back. Even as he felt the airship speed up, he felt the grip he held slighten. He heard Amy call for him, and he knew he could never get to the airlock. He saw a sudden flash of light, and he knew what he had to do. His fist slammed on the close button mounted on the hull. He heard Amy call his name again. And even as the heat overtook him, he dropped into the trees so far below. He got closer and closer, to the trees, but he knew he would never reach them. By the time the wave of fire from the city reached him, he was in blackness darker that a cosmic night.  
  
**************  
  
Chuck stood on a ridge not far from Knothole. All the robians were gathered in the city, and were setting up a temporary camp due to all the buildings in Knothole being destroyed, except for the lab, which had locked down at the first sign of trouble. He sighed in his mechanical voice as he watched the city erupt in flames. 'It's finally over, after all these years...' He thought to himsely. He was watching the airship, far on the horizon, when he thought he saw someone fall just before the ship lurched forward. He plotted the location. "Have to remember that, just in case..." He turned and walked back to Knothole.  
  
**************  
  
The inside door opened and a tired and ruffled looking pink hedgehog stepped out into the airship's main bay where all the survivors were being fed and given a place to sleep. Seeing her enter, Tails rushed over and embraced Amy tightly. "I thought you were going to die..." Tails whispered to her as she returned the embrace. She frowned when she heard him say this. "I'm fine Tails, and I'm glad you were concerned, but we need to help Brian. He's still trapped outside!" Having heard this General Kinyo walked calmly over to them. "I'm afraid he's beyond our help now. He fell off of the ship and, we think, landed in the forest. We can't go back for him because our cloke system has failed and we are now being followed by a small unit of Mobile Patrol Units. We can easily outrun them, and they will run out of energy and crash into the ocean, but if we turn around now, we will not be able to defend this ship or the people abort this ship, and that is not a acceptable loss. I'm sorry, but we're trying to get a message through to the Robians at Knothole. Hopefully, they can help him." 


	28. The Need to Know

The Robotnik Complex Chapter 28  
  
Brian was getting cybernetic surgery when his best friend and commander was electrocuted. Actully, Commander John "Bob" Blair wasn't electrocuted, but that was what on-site observers said it looked---and smelled like. He was killed by a faulty computer program, something that was, until that point, absolutly imposisible. At least according to the computer technicians that designed most of the gear the United Hacker Force used. And Brian Floyd wasn't exactly getting cybernetics installed, either. It was a experimental frontal lobe cortex implant. He thought that he was getting a wetwire implant upgrade. The implant he did receive was what the scientists called a "nano-cryogenic trauma sequencer". Most of the people who designed it and built it just called it a icecube, because it was nothing more than a small, pinky-nail sized piece of silicon that resembled a small icecube. It's very existance was kept secret from Brian simply because the project supervisor's felt he didn't need to know about it. It's purpose was simple. In the event of the ultimate emergency, one that would threaten one's very existance, the chip would save thousands of taxpayers dollars in training and cyberimplants by ordering the body to close up shop. It is rarely known how efficient a heat exchange system is built into the human body, or how this heat effect is tripled when cybernetic devices are installed because all the heat they generate needs to go somewhere. So the chip tells the brain to dump all the bodies heat, all of it, and maintain that status until a UHF rescue team arrives to revive and heal the person. Brian left earth with this device installed, and slept for over 2 1/2 milineia with it still installed. Now, so much later, it was still waiting, for the ultimate situation to arrive, it would execute it's program, flawlessly, a tribute to the long dead american engineers that designed it, the britons that built it, and the russian doctors who installed it.  
  
**********  
  
Chuck entered the busy camp with a odd feeling. Something didn't seem right to him. Then he realized what was troubling him; not one of the Robians were communicating by voice. Even though he had hacked and freed each of their minds, they still insisted in comunicating by radio. He tuned in to the wide-band, and found that the missing bustle of the village was continuing, just not in a way that organic beings could even understand. He felt from some of the survivors a eagerness to find and reunite with their loved ones, from others a nervousness, waiting to see what the living would think of those stuck in limbo, not quite alive, but not yet dead. 'I was mistaken,' He thought to himself, as he watched Robians setting up temporary shelters. 'This is only the begining. We still have a long way to go...' Chuck's private thoughts were interupted when a voice sounded in his head. It was the person he had assigned to radio duty. "Sir, we are reciving flash traffic on the double-band tranciever. It's from the air ship. Transmission to begin in 2 minutes." He activated his transmitter. "I'll be there." He turned toward the communications tent.  
  
**********  
  
"Hey Uncle Chuck, this is Sonic calling from the Terran airship that got us out of the city. We're all fine, and the terrans are being very helpful, but we also have a problem. Brian and Amy made it out of the city, but only Amy made it into the ship. We think Brian was caught by the heatwave and the fire. We would like you to locate him and determine if he is still alive. Although it dosn't seem likely, it's worth a shot. This is Sonic, over and out."  
  
**********  
  
A short time later, Chuck and 3 other robots arrived in the area where he guessed Brian would be. He ordered the others to fan out around him, and he began walking forward, his scanners searching the ruin that this area of the forest had become from the fire and heat. Chuck looked around in awe, and activated his radio. "Nothing could have survived this..." Chuck told the others, who signaled there agreement. "Let's head-" "Picking up a abnomality on tempeture scan. The rest of the damaged forest is at least 100* F, but sensors are detecting a cold spot ahead." "How cold?" Chuck asked. After a few seconds, the robot replied. "At least 10 below zero." Chuck was confused. Nothing he knew of could account for such a tempature difference out in the middle of no where. "Alright," He said to the others. "I'll go check it out, I'll see you all back at the base." After nodding in agreement, they all turned around, and headed home, except for Chuck, who headed deeper into the burnt forest.  
  
**********  
  
"Chuck to Skyline city, double-band tranmission to follow in 10 seconds for Princess Sally Acorn." "Transmitting now. Princess, we have found Brian. He was cryogenically frozen at the moment of retrival, and we put him in cryostasis. It looks bad. From prelimanary scans, his entire epidermis was removed. He would have lost all his bodily fluids and dried up, but he was frozen before much fluid could escape. His skin will have to be cloned before he can be revived. Also, his right robotic arm was torn from it's socket in his shoulder, two spinal disc are out of line and resting on nerves, both his legs are broken, his right side of his hip is shattered, it will have to be replaced, and the right side of his ribcage is broken...all of them. We are currently guessing that most of the injurys were aquired when he fell from the airship. If and when we can revive him and replace his outer skin layer, he will have to spend at least a year in traction, and another 6 months learning to walk again. I'll be waiting for your response princess. This is Charles, over and out." 


	29. Where Angel's fear to tread

The Robotnik Complex Chapter 29  
  
Sonic, Antoine, Bunnie, Tails, Rotor and Amy were buckled into a small hovershuttle ready to take them to Knothole. There buisiness was not nearly concluded in Skyline City, the capital of the terran world, but they each had there own reasons for going back. The only reason that Sally was not going was because she was helping to create a merger between the terran government and the House of Acorn. She had told Sonic on there first night in the city that she thought their president would be a small, fat, bald man with a red suit. Sonic hoped she was joking, but he couldn't tell. But their president, Dr. Alexander Tutturro, was a tall man, or would be of a tall stature, if he hadn't of been in a wheelchair. He was very energetic, however, and shook hands vigorously with all present, saying how thrilled he was to meet us in person at last. They were all friendly toward him, since he seemed friendly enough. So she was still in the city, working out the details of their peace. And they were going home, or what was left of their home. Rotor wanted to get back to his workshop, and see how he could help the people of Robotropolis. "From the design changes Brian made, it's still imposisable for a straightforward de-robotisization process. What we have to design is a machine that can turn a basic organic liquid into a animal, then transfer the animals mind back into the body." Rotor told Tails with enthusiam. "Well, at least you have something to do. All my computers and designs were in my hut when it burned down." "Tails, Brian's computer is still in my lab." "And I need Brian to access it. It's password protected." Rotor didn't have anything to say about that, so he decided to go to sleep. Tails stood and walked over to Amy. "Hey Amy. How ya holding up?" She looked at him with a sullen expression on her face. "I still feel bad about Brian...he didn't deserve that, after helping us." He nodded his head in agreement. "No one can predict when things like this will happen. But I think he would have done what he did even if he knew the outcome." He smiled at her. "Besides, he's still viable. He's just frozen. After a little work, he'll be good as new..." "A little work?" She asked saurcasticly. "OK, a lot of work." She leaned aganst him. "Well, in the meantime, I'm going to sleep, so be still..." Tails smiled at her. "A bit pushy, aren't we?" She shot a look at him. "Don't push it..." She closed her eyes and Tails smiled again. 'I think sleep sounds like a good idea.' He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. On the other side of the cabin, Antoine, Bunnie, and Sonic were deep in a discussion about the terrans. "Of course there going to go aganst Robotnik when they found out he had the Proteus. After us it would have been them, and they know it." Antoine said. "But they had the resources to fight back!" Bunnie protested. "Isn't it posisable that they want peace, to co-exist with us?" "It's possisable," Sonic added. "Just not very likely. I believe that they have another motive." "You know what I think is wrong with us?" Antoine said, his tone sugesting that he had thought of something signifigant. Both Bunnie and Sonic responded at the same time. "What?" "I think," Antoine said, measuring his words carfully. "That we've been at war for so long that even with peace on the horizon, we can't just accept it. I think our time has just past us by, and we are refusing to accept it." Sonic and Bunnie sat for a moment, thinking about what he was saying. "That," Sonic finally said. "Is something I sincerely hope is not true. And if peace is really here, I plan on enjoying it slowly, taking each day as it comes. I'm through fighting the good fight. I've had enough." Antoine and Bunnie nodded in agreement. The cabin speaker came on, nd the pilot spoke to them. "Takeoff in 2 minutes folks. Please be strapped in, because there is one hell of a wind sheer northwest of the city."  
  
**********  
  
The robian technician watching over the cryogenic unit in the lab did not like what he saw. His scans told him that Brian's independent freezing unit had shut off and could not come back on line. And the cryounit computer told him the compressor was damaged in the attach by tremors and was slowly failing. He checked the data over once again, printed out a copy of the report, called his replacement, and went to see Chuck. "And your sure that this is accurate?" Chuck asked the tech, 3 minutes later. "Yessir, I checked the scan twice and ran through the scan once myself. It will fail in the next2 hours." Chuck thought for a moment, then stood up and walked over to a filing cabinent and pulled out a disk. He turned back toward the tech. "Tell the two people outside to stop working on the hoverbike and install the spare particle accelarator in the robotisizer. Let's save him while we still have a chance. Prepare to open the cryotube and transfer Brian. What is the maximum amount of time he can be outside the unit before he begins to destabilize?" "I'd say 10 minutes tops, maybe 15." "That's plenty of time. I'll alert you when we're ready and you can begin moving him." "Yessir." The robian turned and left the room.  
  
**********  
  
"Hey, be carful, that's the only one we have here!" the technician said briskly to the two mechanics fixing the robotisizer. They just looked at him and continued with there work. After bolting it in place and connecting the energy cables, they told him there work was done. "Bill," the technician said over his comlink to the robian that had taken his spot at the controls of the cryo unit. "Prep the body, were ready." "Yeah, and not a moment too soon. Compressor just went, but it's still operating under the gas flow. We are on our way up." 


	30. Flesh into Gear

The Robotnik Complex Chapter 30  
  
Author's Note: I would just like to take a moment to thank a few key people, whose inspiration have been the greatest part in helping me concluding this story. Thanks to Jeremy Harr, who constant and witty remarks on the development of the story was, and still is, greatly appreciated. Thanks to Anthony Bault, who's stories inspired me and introduced me to the concept of SIFF. Thanks to Dylan Frasier, who often told me I was a total nutcase, then gave me useful advice. And thanks to Jon Rohlf, who, although he doesn't know it, is the one who gave me the idea for the flying boots Brian wears. I'm sure that there are others who belong on this list, but I really just want to get to writing the ending. So, without further adu, The Robotnik Complex- Chapter 30 and Epilogue.  
  
The two robians picked up Brian's body out of the fog inside the cryo chamber and placed it on a cart with a solid 'thud'. They pushed the cart into the small fright elevator and sent it up. They they turned back to the stasis pod to try and find the problem with the nitrogen compressor and fix it. Upstairs, the fright elevator opened and two other robians wheeled the cart next to the Robotisizer. The tube slid up and locked. They proceeded to strap Brian to the cart and place the cart into the tube. The clear plexiglass shinned from the lighting from above as it locked into place. The accelerator powered up. Uncle Chuck was rapidly entering codes into the mainframe, trying to access at least the executive robotisizer files. Hopefully, he could get all of them. He wasn't thinking about the computer being secured, but now he had to hack in. He had already tried over a thousand passwords, and was running out of ideas. He decided to look in Brian's system notes that he had written out, looking for a clue. He finally found one, in the form of a haiku, that Brian had scribbled on a sheet:  
  
I now have no home Gaia is lost forever I am the last one  
  
Chuck figured that since he would write a poem about it, Gaia could be important enough to be used as a password. He typed it in and the entire robotisization system booted up. He found the file he was looking for and accessed it. "Now activating safety interlocks, now activating neurostimulators, now activating..." the computer started running through the safety systems required for a frozen robotisization, a proceedure, he knew, would push the system to it's limit. "System checks complete. Ready to begin procedure." The computer informed Chuck. He sealed the tube and powered up all the safety systems, checked the magnetic focus, brought the power up to full, and activated the ten second countdown. Ten seconds later, the computer activated the robotisizer. The goldish light filled the tube, with light strobing as the beam was focused on other parts of Brian's body. Fifty seconds later, the system shut down and the cooling system activated. "Robotisization process complete. Subject is 100% viable." The tube unlocked and slid opened. Brian stood on the platform with his eyes closed. The computer activated his positronic brain and his eyes opened. They were multi-colored, strobing acrossed the surface. His body was metallic silver, his loimbs the normal shape they should have been on a human. "Brian," Chuck asked the robot, not sure if the thought transfer program worked or not. "How do you feel?" Brian stood there for a second before opening his mouth to speak. Chuck knew he didn't need to do that, it was just something he was used to. "I feel like hammered shit. What the fuck happened?" Chuck laughed. "It's a long story, I'll tell you later if there's time, but for now, all you need to know is that your in Knothole with the robotic refugees from Robotropolis. Sonic and a few of the others are on there way back now, Sally is meeting with the Terran President, discussing a peace agreement, and you were severely hurt while leaving the city at the end of the mission. We have reports of only one fatality, and thats St. John. We left him in the city to die." Brian looked as if he were trying to remember something. "Is...Did...Is Robotnik dead?" Chuck looked at him. "You must have lost your memory from falling, or landing, or something, I don't really know. Yes, he is dead. You killed him. And even if you hadn't, he would be dead anyway. The city of Robotropolis has ceased to exist. From the city center, a 10 mile radius is completely barren. Another 10 miles out was destroyed by the shockwave from the thermite plasma the helicopters dropped on the city. The robians barely made it out of the blast radius. In fact, the only reason they did was because they stole one of Robotnik's troop transports, before there minds were freed. Figure that one out. Brian chuckled. "I intend to. That's very interesting." Chuck nodded in agreement. "Well, I think we should call Sally." Brian shrugged as best a robot could. "Ok."  
  
**********  
  
"Chuck and Captain Brian Floyd to Skyline city, double-band tranmission to follow in 10 seconds for Princess Sally Acorn and General Robert Kinyo." "Transmiting now. Princess, Brian has been sucessfully robotisized after cryogenic failure. He is fine, but his memory stops right before he left the city. Also, he is eager to have your permission to begin a new project. He thinks he has a few ideas about how to Derobotisize the survivors, and he wants Rotor and me to assist him. We will await your transmission. Here's Brian for the General." "General Kinyo, I will give you my debriefing. After falling from the airship, I was rescued by a team fron Knothole. Their original plan was to keep me in cryogenic suspension, but due to compressor failure, they were forced to robotisize me while I remained viable. I am currently at 100% working condition and planning to stay in Knothole, with your permission, to research derobotisization techniques. That is all, sir." The princess was glad that Brian survived. So was the General for that matter, but Sally's reaction was much calmer. "YES! The goddamn sonofabitch DID IT!! HAHA!!" Robert was laughing, while Sally looked onward. He stopped and turned toward her. "Well, I've never lost a man in the field, so it comes as a great pleasure that he survived." Sally smiled at him. "I'm happy for you and for Brian, General. But we still have work to do." He nodded at her and punched in the transmission code. "Princess Sally Acorn and General Robert Kinyo to Knothole Village, double-band transmission to follow in 10 seconds for Chuck and Brian." When the feed began to transmit, Robert started in right away. "Brian, Sally and I are thrilled, absolutly thrilled that your alright. We both know that if anyone can take care of the derobotisization, it's you, Chuck, and Rotor. We can't wait to see what you fellows come up with. As for your debreifing, I accept your report and grant you permission to stay in Knothole for the duration of the project. We will also ship everything you need out there. Just get me a supply list. That's it for me, but the princess wishes to speak to you." "Brian, first I would like to give my congradulations for a mission well done. Rotor and a few of the others are on there way to Knothole. The others will stay in Skyline City until reconstruction on Mobotropolis begins. I have signed an agreement between the House of Acorn and the Terran Confederation. Our governments will merge upon the completion of the reconstruction project. Until then, good luck on the project. This is Skyline City, over and out."  
  
********** Three Months Later ********** "Ok Bunnie. Are you ready?" Brian asked, while flipping switches on a console. Over the last three months, he and Chuck had been working 24 hour shifts on the derobotisizer, with Rotor putting in around 16 hours every day, and Tails helping with 12. They were all there now, along with all the other senior freedom fighters. They found a simple way to derobotisize victims of Robotnik's rule, and the ironic thing is, it came from one of Robotnik's early inventions, a synthetic biochemical that could, if mixed properly, destroy all organic matter on contact. The only reason he never used it was because in large amounts, mixed that way, it had a tendency to explode. But, after looking at it for a while, they realized that they could use the same principle for robotisization to use this biochemical to reconstruct the person's body from the robot and the genetic information imprinted in all robotisized people. Even if they've been only partially robotisized. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be, I guess." Bunnie said. Brian smiled at her, and sealed the tube. "Computer, Scan subject for genetic material for reference." Brian ordered the computer. In a ordinary case, this would have taken years, even with a computer as fast as Brian's. But with Zik, the AI from Robotropolis, and a special program that looks for key genetic switches, the machine thay Chuck, Brian, Rotor, and Tails built could untangle a DNA sequence in under a minute. "Scan complete, ready for derobotisization." "Run sequence." Brian told the computer. The tube began to fill with a thin lime green liquid. Brian activated the intercom. "Bunnie, hold your breath, this will only take 15 seconds." She held her breath as her head was covered. Brian activated the particle accelarator. Even with the tube filled with green liquid, the famillar light was still visable. After 10 seconds, the liquid drained and the sprinkler activated, washing the green goop away from the walls. After that, the tube slid open. And Bunnie looked back at them, completely organic. 


	31. Epilogue

The Robotnik Complex Epilogue  
  
Date: March 4, 4583 Brian stood in the rear of a large reception hall in upper Mobotropolis. Reconstruction was complete, and all Robians had been derobotisized. He slowly walked forward, his metallic arms covered by the suit he wore. He was stopped by Tails, who was dressed in a tuexedo, he was with Amy, now his wife. "Hey Brian, we're going to leave. Do you need a ride back out to Knothole?" Brian shook his head softly, his hair tumbling down in front of his face. "I brought my hoversled, but thanks. I'm gonna leave soon too. I just want to say bye to Sally and Sonic." Tails and Amy nodded and walked out. Brian continued through the almost now empty room. 'Hard to believe it was filled just an hour ago.' Brian thought to himself as he walked toward Sonic and Sally, who were talking to Alexander Lieber, the president of the Terran Confereration. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Bunnie helping her date for the evening, Antoine, out to their car. 'Someone had a bit too much to drink.' Brian thought as the group of three turned toward him. "Good evening, Princess, Sonic, Mr. President." Brian was about to continue when Alex grabbed his hand and slapped him on the back, shaking his hand with exuberance. "Brian, I have heard a lot about you! It's thrill to finally meet you in person!" "The pleasure is all mine, Mr. President. It is because of you that our efforts at reconstruction are possisable." Sally smiled at him. "But you started it all, Brian. You should remember that." Brian shook his head. "No, I just gave a boost to the inevitable." Sally shrugged. "Who knows. History dosn't repeat, but it often rhymes." They all laughed. "Well princess, I just wanted to wish you and your company good night." Brian turned and began to walk away. He hated being here, and he wanted to leave the building as quickly as posisable. He reached the door, pushed it open, and stepped out into the cool night air. Behind him, Sonic shook his head and laughed. Alex looked at him. "What's so funny, Sonic? "Brian. He'll never learn to relax." Sally looked at him oddly. "What do you mean? "He was carrying a gun, I saw it when he turned."  
  
**********  
  
Brian reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of Nails. He pulled one out and lit it, inhailing deeply. He was nervous, for some reason, and the cigarette made him feel better. 'Jesus, you shouldn't feel nervous. You have a bank account to make Bill Gates blush. You have good friends, and the military is interested in the craft you designed.' Brian looked up into the sky, full of stars. After a few minutes, he was able to fine earth. As always, looking at his home world filled him with a mixture of pride and sadness. He knew he could never go back. 'And even if you did, what would you find? A few bacteria, maybe a small animal? It's out of your reach forever, and you know it. You just can't admit it yet...' Suddenly, he didn't want to go back to Knothole. He wanted to...what? Fill himself with terror? Dance in the street? What did he want? Brian closed his eyes and looked toward the ground. He tilted his head up toward his home and opened his eyes. Green streaks of energy flowed across his eye. A second later, he lifted off, heading toward the sky, heading toward a inner peace with himself only he could fine. He was looking for his past. He was looking for where he really belonged. He was looking for home.  
  
Flesh into gear My self appears Disected and pretensious A simple sound A heavy sigh You'll win the whole world over You'll live in fear of being someone you didn't want to You'll realize you insecurities will get the best of you  
  
The End 


End file.
